Percy Jackson and the Dissipating Mist
by xXI.AM.BEASTXx
Summary: A continuation of the PJATO series after PJTLO. The mist is dissapearing and Percy and his friends are the only ones that can help. Mysteriously, Percy starts to gain new powers, he has to learn how to use them while saving the mist and a certain person.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! I've had this idea floating around in my head for a few months now, and I've tried to write it, but never like how it turned out, so please forgive me if I go slowly. I know most of you don't read this beginning note, but if you do, review please so that I know what you guys like to read in a book. I haven't gotten very many reviews lately and I was hoping for more. Thanks and enjoy!

Summary: The story continues after Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian. The only differences are that Percy and Annabeth never had that little thing at the end of the book and Percy can get hurt. He's still invulnerable, but he can get hurt if he's hit hard enough and can die if something bad enough happens to him. Basically, in the story, Kronos's minions are still at work and the mist is disappearing. Percy is once again questing to save the fate of the world. So what else is new? (I don't own PJATO Series)

Chapter 1: A Normal School Day, at Least for Me

I was sitting in my seat in the back of the classroom. It was the middle of the school year and we were having a pre-break free day. A lot of the kids went outside to talk and hangout in the clean hallways of Goode High school, but I chose to stay seated and look over the pictures Annabeth had sent me yesterday. She was at her regular school in San Francisco when she sent me a picture of her newest friend. Her friend's name was Ashley. They went to school together, but that wasn't the weirdest part. Annabeth recognized her as a demigod. There was an email she sent me as well.

_(Percy, _

_Things are going well in San Fran. My parents are treating me like normal and I've only been attacked 3 times since last week. I don't understand why you're not being attacked. I mean, you _are_ the one who basically saved the entire Western World. I don't know why they just don't go after you. I didn't do anything. But anyways, I met this new girl Ashley, she goes to my school, transferred from Chicago, and it looks like we have a new camper. I haven't told her yet, I'm almost positive her dad knows who Ashley's mother is. So do I, but I don't want to make any assumptions. All you have to do is look at the pictures and you'll know who I mean. I'll see you later seaweed brain. And I promise to come visit over break. I'll bring Ashley too, we've gotten pretty close. _

_ -Annabeth Chase)_

I was looking at the pictures she had sent me and I saw a familiar face, but one that I had never seen before. I knew exactly who this girl's mother was. She had gray eyes and light blonde hair like Annabeth's and she had the body of a great athlete. Her mother was Athena. Then, like a few years ago, the picture was ripped from my hand. In front of me stood my teacher, Mrs. Marlo. I knew from the beginning of the year that she was a monster, but since she didn't attack I didn't feel the need to destroy her. I found out that she wasn't a teacher here when I had caught her eating flies while walking by the classroom. I didn't know what she was going to do right now.

"Mr. Jackson, did you steal Vince Fartel's backpack?" Yes, you heard her right, his last name was Fartel, and it fitted him perfectly. He was this year's school bully, the boy who wanted to ruin my life just because I got the last slice of pizza in the lunch line. He was a large kid with long brown hair and piercing, evil green eyes. He was on the football team, he was the most popular kid among the sophomores and he was failing every class except lunch.

"No, I didn't Mrs. Marlo." I replied trying to act like I didn't know what she was. Mrs. Marlo's human disguise had dirty blonde hair, a permanent sneer and beady eyes that always stared you down until you almost pee your pants. Well, that's what everyone else says at least. I'm always too busy holding Riptide with a Vice-grip just in case she decided to spring.

She seemed to fall for my trick and crossed her arms. "Very well Mr. Jackson. But if I catch you with it-" She was cut off by Vince yelling: "Mrs. Marlo! I found it! He does have it!" He was pointing to under my desk where his ugly brown backpack was. I was surprised to see that it was there. I glanced at Vince and caught him smirking.

"He's the one who put it there! He set me up!" I yelled. We had most the people in the classroom's attention now and there were a few kids stopping outside in the hall to sneak a peek at the heated argument.

"Mr. Jackson, I'm afraid I don't believe that, and I'm sorry to say that you are going to have to be punished for it." I saw her smile and I knew what was coming next. I began to reach for my pocket, but she saw and everything exploded all at once.

First of all, Mrs. Marlo burst out of her human disguise and turned into a creature with a snake bottom and a human top. Her serpentine tail was a mottled green and her eyes glowered red. Second, I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. Lastly, when I swung, a kid yelled: "He has a sword!" and everybody started screaming.

It didn't occur to me at first that they had seen my sword or even the monster. I was too focused on defeating what was trying to kill me.

"Perseus Jackson, you are no longer wanted in this world." The monster said.

"well, _I_ don't want you on this earth." I replied. She hissed and struck at me with lightning speed. I knew that I was about to be bitten. I closed my eyes and tensed up. But then the oddest thing happened, my eyes opened and I saw her coming at me, but my mind seemed to slow everything down. I ducked and the strike missed by barely an inch.

"Whoa." Vince said.

The monster looked surprised at my quick dodge, I was too. She tried again, and the same thing happened, except this time I swung my sword after and I managed to hit her right through her middle. She dissipated into yellow dust.

At first there was complete silence, and I just stood there in my sword swinging pose breathing deeply. Then there was he murmur or voices.

"That was awesome!" Vince yelled. Then I heard a volley of voices asking who I really was, if I was a superhero, if I worked in an agency. I couldn't answer any of these honestly, so I did the first thing. I ran to the principles' office. And in case you didn't know this, my stepdad was the principle.

I knocked on the door after barreling past the secretary.

"I'm on the phone, please don't come in." He yelled from inside.

"Dad, it's me." I said. I only called him dad when it was an emergency. He didn't say anything at first.

"Come in." I opened the door and he was hanging up the phone.

"Paul, my teacher finally showed herself." I said the second I came in.

I saw his eyes widen, and then he sighed. "I think you should go home for the rest of the day."

"That's not it." I said. "Everybody actually saw Riptide and the monster. I don't know how, but they saw their _real_ forms."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, sorry about how fast last chapter went, I just wanted to throw stuff out there and see what kind of reviews I could get. I haven't gotten any so far sadly, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop writing. It just encourages me to do better. I'd like to thank everybody who reviewed my last story and I hope you like this one as well. Now that the beginning is over, the rest of this shall be fast, and easy to write. DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! (I do not own PJATO series or its characters)**

Chapter 2: Why Doesn't Anybody Believe Me?

When I got home, I went straight to my room and began packing all my demigod supplies into a big travel bag, along with everyday hygienic stuff including clothes. My mom came in while I was digging stuff out of my closet.

"Percy, what happened?" She asked.

I didn't know if I should have told her, but at the time, she was the only one I could trust with this little secret, at least until I got to camp and told Chiron.

"I think that mist is disappearing." I said seriously while pouring a good few pounds of Drachma's into a plastic baggie along with emergency human money.

My mom didn't reply, she just picked up a pile of clothes and began putting them into the travel bag. "Do you believe me?" I asked looking at her.

"I learned a long time ago to trust you Percy." She said. "And while I was at the store yesterday, a hellhound came through and at least 4 mortals other than me saw it. They ran out screaming while I had the guts to calmly walk out of there."

So my mom knew something was up as well. I turned to her. "Can I take my car now?" I asked. I hadn't been allowed to drive it because I was only a sophomore, but I was also 16. My mom said yes.

"DO you want something to eat before you leave?" she asked.

I turned to smile at her. "That's alright mom. I don't think I should battle monsters on a full stomach." I gave her a hug and left.

My car was a dark sea-colored turquoise and had sea print seat covers along with an emergency drachma hanging from the mirror. I put on a pair of glasses and cautiously pulled out of the lot making sure that nothing was going to attack me while I tried to obey the traffic laws.

As soon as the coast was clear, I began to speed up and as soon as New York was out of sight, I began to go over the speed limit so that I would arrive to tell Chiron about the emergency.

Half-way there, I began to run out of gas. Just my luck. I had to pull over to the side of the road and get out of the car. I didn't own a cell phone, so I couldn't call a taxi, I didn't want to use my golden drachmas to call somebody to come get me, so I decided to walk. I needed to get my car out of here though, so I used a small handful of drachma's to send my car to camp via Hermes. I would have asked him if he could take me as well, but honestly he confused me so much I didn't really want to deal with that. As soon as I saw my precious car disappear, I began to walk. I walked for miles in the ice cold wind, then I remembered, I HAD A PEGASUS.

Berating myself for being such a Seaweed brain, I whistled and within minutes, Blackjack landed in front of me with a little gallop and hop in his step.

'Yo, boss, haven't seen you in a while. Why you way out here in the middle of nowhere?' He asked.

"My car broke down. I need a ride to camp." I replied.

'No problem. Get on and we'll see how fast we can get you there.' I did as he said and soon camp was in sight, along with at least parked cars with tourists with cameras taking pictures of our beautiful fields.

'Blackjack. Land right here and hide your wings. We need to get pat these people without drawing attention.'

He landed behind a tree and hid his wings on his underside. I got off and let my hand hold the back of his neck so it looked like I was guiding him. We began to walk past the people towards out supposedly secret camp. I saw a little girl in a pink dress spot me and she tugged on a woman's pants.

"Mommy, I think that boy is going into the camp." She said, her voice rang out among the group. They all turned their heads to look at me. A few men started coming up to me and a few guys that were maybe a little older came as well.

"Hey, kid, do you attend this camp?" One of them asked. I didn't reply, I just looked straight ahead and continued walking.

"None of us can enter the camp for some reason, there's like an invisible wall, do you think that you can tell us what it is?" A man asked. I still didn't answer.

"Hey dude, answer us when we're talking to you. Don't make me make you." A kid said. I didn't answer still, we had to get into the camp grounds, and then I could run to tell Chiron although I'm sure he already knew.

The kid started coming after me and I broke into a run, I let Blackjack go ahead of me and I followed. The kid almost caught me, but at the last second, I broke into a sprint and entered the boundary lines. The kid ran smack into an invisible wall and fell backwards. I kept running.

"Hey! Get back here!" He yelled.

I ran into the Big house panting and sweating. Chiron was sitting at the normal table playing cards with Mr. D. When the door burs open and I flew in, Chiron just looked up and smiled.

"Hello Percy, you're here early this year."

Why weren't they doing anything about that situation? Why were they just playing cards?

"Do you have any idea what's going on outside?" I asked incredulously.

"No, please do tell." Mr. D said sarcastically.

"Chiron, the mist is disappearing! There are people outside the bounds right now taking pictures and wondering why they can't get in!"

Chiron laughed. "That's a good one Percy. Why don't you go get yourself situated into your cabin. Annabeth shall be here in a few minutes."

"Chiron! I'm not joking. I was attacked by a monster in class today and everybody saw Riptide and the monster perfectly." Chiron just looked at me.

"Percy, it's almost impossible for the mist to disappear. It's created by the gods."

"I know Chiron, but I'm not lying. Just go outside and look at the top of the hill! There are at least 10 people taking pictures." Chiron sighed.

"Why don't you believe me?" I asked him.

"Because Percy, it doesn't seem believable."

I sighed and walked over to the window that faced half-blood hill. I pursed my lips in a 'I'm going to prove you wrong way' and opened the blinds. Camera flashes and echoed voices reached the inside of the big house.

"By all that is mighty." Chiron said wheeling his way over to the window o get a closer look. "This is not good."

"I'm going to go warn the rest of the campers."

"But none of them are here yet." He said.

"I'm going to ask Iris for a very big favor."

I walked outside and to my cabin then I locked myself inside it. Once I was alone, I pulled out a drachma and threw it into the steam.

"Iris, Mt. Olympus." I said confidently. The message twisted and turned, then Iris showed. She was in a room with white walls made up of what looked like clouds and she had a small little water fountain going in the back. A rainbow made its way across the entire room.

"Perseus. You wished to speak with me." She asked.

"Yes, wish to send a message to a very big group of people and I don't have enough drachma's." I said.

"I'm sorry, but that would be unfair." She began.

"Yes, but this is important. The mist is disappearing. Mortals can see what is really happening."Iris looked at me with her mysterious eyes.

"Prove it." She said.

"Look down at the top of half-blood hill. There are tourists trying to enter out premises and are wondering why they can't get in." She looked into a small pool of water that was next to her. I saw colors flash of the surface.

"I see that you are telling the truth. I grant you this onetime Perseus, but you must lead a quest to figure out why this is happening and how to stop it." I nodded once.

"Who do you wish to contact?" She asked.

"Every known Demigod in the Western World." I replied.

She nodded and soon there was a blur of images. I heard many voices, but I had to get them to silence. I took a deep breath and spoke with a loud, strong voice.

"Attention all Demigods. This is a Warning from Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon. There is a problem. The mist is disappearing and we don't know why. The only way to keep our world safe is if we have every single last demigod, no matter who's parent they have, come. If we do not have every hero at camp half-blood by the end of this week, horrible things may happen and our world may be exposed. I warn you one last time. Come to camp half-blood, all of our fates depend on it." I then sliced through the Iris message silently sending her a thanks.

I stood and there was a knocking on the door. "Come in." I yelled. The door flew open and in ran Annabeth. She ran straight to me and hugged me almost crushing my lungs. Behind her stood a girl that looked just like her, but she looked scared.

"She just found out didn't she?" I asked when Annabeth finally let go. They both nodded. I walked up to Ashley and offered my hand.

"Hi, Perseus Jackson, you can call me Percy." I said. She nodded slowly and a small, shy smile spread across her face.

"You're the guy who just sent that message!" She said. I nodded and she took my hand. I didn't expect what happened next.

Everything went black and I saw one image in my head. It was the image of Athena holding a small gray owl. I began to fall backwards. The last thing I heard was Annabeth yelling: "Percy."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey! I feel like I'm going really fast with this story, but I don't really was to slow down. I would have had this finished earlier, but I had to take a test and then I went shopping. I want to thank asdfjkl for all the reviewing. Your awesome and thank you for taking such liking to my story. Here is the next chapter! (I do not own PJATO series or characters)**

Chapter 3: My Head Hurts

First, I heard an angelic voice calling my name, and then I realized that it was no angel, but somebody trying to wake me up. I didn't want to get up, I wanted to sleep.

"Perseus Jackson! Please wake up!" The voice screamed. My eyes shot open, and I saw the blurry image of Annabeth standing over me, and I then felt her shaking me vigorously.

My eyes focused on her and I managed a raspy "Annabeth?" She sighed out of relief.

"Thank goodness Seaweed Brain. I thought you were going to die." She said. I slowly sat up, only to feel a sharp twang on the back of my head.

"Ow." I said reaching my hand back there and feeling a big sore lump.

"You fell on backwards and hit your head. You probably have a bump."

"No der, how did you figure that out?" I asked. I saw her turn red and she looked away. I got to my feet and grabbed a bottle of water off the desk that my dad had sent me. (it was made out of coral and put into swirly designs. It was actually still alive, the base of it was in water)

I turned and noticed both Ashley and Annabeth were facing me expectantly. "What?" I asked.

"Well, aren't you going to tell us what happened, so that I can explain things to Ashley?" Annabeth asked as if I already knew what she wanted.

"That's not fair, I should get to help you tell her. After all, I was the first to let her know our world exists." I said unscrewing the cap of the bottle.

"Don't you start another argument seaweed brain or I'll steal your bottle." She threatened, apparently, she was tired of our constant fighting and didn't want to have one in front of her new friend. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen today.

"Oh no. You're going to steal my water bottle." I feigned intimidated.

"You won't be laughing when that bump on your head gets bigger." She teased.

"Umm." Ashley said from behind Annabeth. We both turned and I was surprised to see how close Annabeth had gotten during our argument. "What's so special about a bottle of water?" She asked.

I took a step around Annabeth so that I was facing her. "My father's Poseidon." I said. She looked confused.

"You mean, the ruler of the sea?" She asked. I nodded, and she broke out laughing. "You're kidding right?"

Annabeth and I looked at each other. "I think it's time we explained some things." Annabeth said. "After…" she turned to me "Percy tells us why he fainted."

"Umm, I shook her hand," I said pointing to Ashley, "Saw a picture of Athena holding a gray owl, then passed out." I said. She didn't look like she believed me. "I promise in the River Styx I'm telling the truth." I felt my weak spot tingle which reminded me that I couldn't get hurt easily, I must have fallen hard. If I was still weak, then I might have cracked my head open.

"I need to talk to my dad about getting this place carpeted." I said rubbing my tender head.

Annabeth smiled. "Just poor your water on your seaweed head, seaweed brain."She said.

Ashley looked at me as if I was crazy as I promptly poured the water over my head.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We took Ashley out to the beach to explain everything to her, we didn't wasn't to gain any attention from the tourists on the top of the hill. I turned to Annabeth.

"How did you get in here without getting noticed?" I asked.

"Argus drove us in. Ashley thought he was going to a costume party and decided to earn a few extra bucks."

I laughed, then turned to Ashley and we began to explain everything that had happened since I joined the camp. We got mixed reactions. But she seemed to be taking things very well.

"So, who's my mother?" She asked. I turned to Annabeth and we both nodded.

"Athena."

"You mean, I'm related to Annabeth?" She asked.

"In a way." Annabeth said. "Our mom doesn't really have genes, we're like soul sisters."

"And Percy, d you have any other siblings now?" She asked.

I shook my head. "My father said I'm good enough for him at the moment. He doesn't want to deal with any more angry children."

"You're angry?"

"I was at the beginning, but then we grew closer, he gets to be more like a real dad every day. He takes me to his palace once every other month and has me help him with redecorating and he's always talking about how the Dolphins should have won against the Chargers or Steelers."

"Ha, sounds like my dad, except, he cheers for the Raiders."

"eh, their ok."

The dinner bell rang, and we began walking up to the pavilion. I saw Annabeth pull something out of her pocket and saw water come flying at me. I first raised my hand to try and stop it, and when I did, it froze into ice in midair and hung there.

"How did you do that?" Ashley asked.

"I have no clue." I replied.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, I want to thank everyone for reviewing! You guys are awesome and make me want to make this story even better. I know I usually submit two chapters in one day, but I was really busy yesterday. So, I hope you enjoy this chapter and review. (I do not own PJATO series or characters)**

Chapter 4: I thought I Was Already Powerful Enough!

When I had dropped my arms to my sides, the ice had gone with it and shattered against the cement of the pavilion. There were a few harpies and camp helpers that were staring at me as if I was going to do something else, like make pigs fly.

I tried to ignore them as I went to sit at my regular seat at the Poseidon table. Annabeth and Ashley came to join me. I guess since nobody else was here, they were allowed to sit with me, because nobody said anything about it.

"So, why do you think that happened?" Ashley asked. I turned to Annabeth and I could see her thinking face on.

"Why don't we wait for Annabeth, I'm sure she'll have a few hundred suggestions in a few moments." I replied sitting back and waiting for our food to be served.

As we waited, a large group of Satyrs and Tree Nymphs came in. But there were only two that I recognized.

"Grover! Juniper!" I called getting up from the table trying to get their attention. Basically, the entire group turned to look at us. I just waved and walked over to greet them. AS the rest of their group sat down, Grover and Juniper came to meet me.

"Hey Percy." Grover said smacking me on the back.

"Hi again Percy." Juniper excitedly hugged me then backed up to Grover.

"Hey." I replied.

"So, why are you here so early? Didn't want to go to school one more day?"

"No, it's not that. Didn't you see the tourists up on the hill?"

"No, we have tourists on the top of the hill? Why?"

"The mist is disappearing, they can see the camp. I found out in class when I was attacked and everybody saw the monster and Riptide."

"The mist can't be disappearing." Grover said.

"I'll prove it to you later, but now, I'm hungry and we need to get ready to receive hundreds of campers."

"Why?" Juniper asked.

"Because Iris let me send a very large message telling every single known half-blood to come to camp, no questions asked."

"well, after dinner I'll help set up."

"Do you want to sit with us?" I asked.

He looked behind me at the table and saw Ashley and Annabeth. "Hey, that's the girl in the picture Annabeth sent me. Is she a daughter of Athena?"

"Yeah. She came here thinking it was an ordinary camp."

"Well, come on Grover, I want to go meet her." Juniper said tugging on Grover's arm.

"Alright. I'm coming."

I led them to the table and took a seat next to Annabeth. Juniper sat in between Grover and Ashley, as soon as she was seated, she turned to Ashley and offered a hand.

"Hi! I'm Juniper. A tree nymph. I hope you like the camp so far!" She said excitedly.

Ashley smiled and shook her hand. "Yeah, I like it. It's nice to meet you too. I'm Ashley, daughter of Athena."

Just then, a messenger Satyr came up and tapped me on the shoulder, we all turned to look at him.

"Chiron wishes to see you. Down by the beach." He said.

I nodded thanks and got up to go. "I'll see you later. Don't do anything to attract attention from the tourists. I'll have to deal with them tomorrow." I said as I walked off to the beach.

Chiron was sitting right next to the tide. His fake feet were getting wet in the sea water.

"Chiron." I asked, joining him. I walked into the water, but my feet stayed dry.

"Percy, there is definitely something wrong, and I'm not talking about just the mist."

I felt my heart rate speed up a little bit. "Do you know what it is?" I asked.

"Not quite, all I know is that you got a letter from your father and that it was sent express mail."

"The mortal way?" I asked, extremely surprised.

He pulled out the letter and he handed I to me. I took it and after calming my shaking hands, I opened it.

His elegant script overtook me and I read it.

_Perseus, _

_I've been watching you closely for the last few weeks son. You have made me proud. I know of the mist, and that it is dissipating. I also know of the odd things you have been doing. These things, as you know, only I can do. But do not worry. I am giving you small control over what I have all power over. You will use these powers to discover who is causing our cover to disappear. I cannot take these powers back Perseus, so I advise you to use them wisely. Your friend, Annabeth, is being given temporary extra wisdom from her mother. Make sure that she is close to you throughout your quest. Your new friend Ashley will also play a part in this quest, but let her make her own choices, she needs to in order for you to survive. Your new powers will need a little bit of practice, but do not let anyone know of them. They are for you to know about until the time comes. Good luck Percy._

_-your father_

I read the letter twice before Chiron cleared his throat. "Is there anything on the letter that educates you of the mist or any other emergency?" He asked.

I folded up the letter and put it in my pocket next to Riptide. "He says the mist is disappearing, and that he wants me to find out why."

Chiron thought about this for a little while. "We should wait until the campers get here, then we can send you and a few others on a quest. Who did you have in mind of taking with you?"

"So far, only two daughters of Athena, and a rich redheaded oracle." I said, knowing that he would understand who I was talking about.

"Alright. Fair enough for me. For the rest of the night, I want you to stay in your cabin and relax. No over thinking things."

"OK." I said. Chiron smiled and wheeled himself up the beach to the big house.

As soon as he was out of sight, I turned to the sea and tried to contact the nearest mind of any sea animal. Luckily, I found a dolphin, one of the smartest sea creatures there is.

'Go to Poseidon, tell him Percy understands and will do everything in his power to figure things out.' I received an agreement from him and he swam off.

"Thank you father." I whispered, before turning and heading to my cabin. I saw harpies and Satyrs building new cabins behind the first row for the lesser god's children and I saw a cabin being built next to mine which would eventually be the Hades cabin. Only Nico would be staying there so I knew that I wouldn't be the only single camper in a cabin.

I entered my cabin to the soft trickle of water and as my feet touched the floor, I noticed that my shoes weren't making a hollow concrete sound anymore. I looked down and noticed that there was now a half beach sand/ half sea water floor. I found this funny that my dad had heard my little joke earlier that day.

I sat on my bed that was on the dry side and re-read the letter. "And I thought I was powerful enough already." I said, putting the piece of paper under my pillow, and then lay against it. "At least I don't have to worry about cracking my head open anymore."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey! I'm so happy that I make you guys happy, but I'm tired of greeting you guys the same way every chapter. So I'm going to try and make it more exciting. I'm going to pretend that I'm a reporter!  
-Hello, this is .BEASTXx. I'm here reporting about Chapter 5 of Percy Jackson and the Dissipating Mist, at the moment, I put Percy in a tough situation, he's got two choices, to tell Annabeth about his choice on taking Rachel, or to keep it a secret until the last moment. What do you think Bob?**

**-Well, personally, I think Rachel shouldn't even be involved in this story, but I do agree that it will make it 20 times more interesting and suspenseful. That's what everybody is asking for these days. A chance to get attention.**

**-I agree with you. Adding Rachel was probably a bad idea, but I just couldn't resist. It might get me more readers, you know, because Annabeth gets jealous (major teaser about story just given).**

**-Right you are, well, let's see how this chapter unfolds shall we?**

**-We shall**

**(I do not own the PJATO series or characters)**

Chapter 5: Training

The sun was peeking through the room right at the right angle, it reflected off the water, then off the abalone shell ceiling right into my eyes. I stood and waded through the water to the showers where I quickly got ready. Once I was back in my cabin, I looked at my shield watch. It was only 6 in the morning. Groaning, I dragged myself outside to take care of the tourist that were still on half-blood hill.

Once they saw me getting closer, they started yelling for me to let them in. I sighed and walked up to the very edge of the inside of the camp ground's boundary line.

"Why won't you let us in?" A guy asked. "We just want to take pictures, it looks really cool in there." This guy, I recognized, was one of the men that had yelled at me the day before. I couldn't really tell them what this camp was, or they would blab everything to the press. I said that first thing that came to my mind.

"This is a restricted area, if we let you in, we'd have to kill you." I said.

They looked stunned at my 'confession' but nodded their heads and began to back off. I didn't know what they had on their minds, but I didn't worry myself about it.

"We're sorry sir. We won't bug you again."

"No, you won't. If you see anybody else illegally trying to get in here, tell them what I just told you." I retorted before turning on my heel and walking down the hill. Halfway down, I turned to look, there wasn't a car in sight.

"That worked, what did you do?" I turned to see Annabeth with her arms crossed and her bronze sword strapped to her waist. For a second, I debated on whether I should tell her that I was planning on bringing Rachel on a quest that she and Ashley would have to come along on as well, but decided against it.

"I threatened them with a world-wide saying." I said as we began to walk to the pavilion for breakfast.

"Which was…?"

"If I do, we have to kill you." She laughed at that.

"Hey guys." Grover said joining us. For a second, I felt complete and relaxed, we had the old group again, nobody to distract us, but then it went away when I realized that we would never be the same as we were 6 years ago. Too many things had happened to us, changed us.

"Percy, are you ok?" Grover asked. I snapped back to attention when we sat down at my table.

"Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking."

Annabeth looked horrified. "Quickly! Duck and cover before he bursts!" She then put her arms over her head in an attempt to make it look like she was trying to protect herself.

"Ha, Ha. Very funny." I said, then asked the goblet in front of me for orange juice.

"So, what time should the other campers start showing up?" Grover asked.

"Anytime. I just hope the first person to show up isn't-."

"Hey, I'm here!" I groaned at the voice and turned to see my worst nightmare. Clarisse, daughter of Ares. (pretend her sudden burst of niceness never happened in book 5). She was looking straight at me with an evil intensity. "Well, if it isn't Prissy."

"Clarisse, can't you pretend that you're nice, just until the other campers show up?" I asked.

"Now, why would I do that if you're right there, just begging to be made fun of? I mean, you're face is stupid, your skills at wrestling are horrible, and your definitely not the most powerful son of Poseidon there's ever been. Why are you even here when you know that you're going to have a happy ending?" She asked.

I could feel my face getting hot. She was really starting to bug me and if I ignored her, then she would just do it some more. I needed to come up with a comeback quickly or I might exploded using the new powers I have, and that would be against my dad's request.

After 20 seconds of her staring smugly at me, I had one. "I'm here because if I'm not, everybody in our world will be exposed and possibly even killed. I'm here to save my fellow half-bloods from the scalpels of the scientists and the products they'd test on them. And you don't know that I'll have a happy ending. That was just at the time. I might have a horrible bloody ending where nobody will be there to save me, and I could go to the pits of Hades. So I suggest you don't make assumptions, and watch out for yourself and your friends, because you never know when something might happen to you." I was on a roll, but I didn't want to get her too mad, so I stopped there. I turned to look at Annabeth. She looked slightly shaken up, and I could see in her eyes that she was sort of sad.

She whispered something in my ear. "If that was ever to happen to you, Seaweed Brain, then I would be there with you trying to stop it." I smiled a thanks, and turned back to Clarisse, where she was sputtering.

"Y-You-but-no-i-always-but-how-why."

"Clarisse, I think you should go sit down and eat your breakfast before your head hurts itself." I said.

She didn't reply, she just turned and went to her table.

During the rest of the Breakfast, a few more campers showed up and went to sit at their tables. I could feel most of them staring at me, and I didn't like it; I had to live with it though. If I wanted them to listen they had to be on my side.

After breakfast, I went to go greet the campers that were beginning to arrive, Annabeth and Ashley went with me. There was like a waterfall of campers all showing up. A lot of them seemed to be carpooling. Actually, it didn't seem like a bad idea living around other half-bloods, of course, they must attract a lot of attention from monsters.

"Hey Percy!" I turned to see Thalia. She was trailed by the rest of the huntresses.

"Hey Thalia!" I said offering her a hi-five, but she ignored it and gave me a hug instead. I hugged her back and we parted so that she could hug Annabeth.

"And who is this?" She asked, brushing her longer black hair out of her face so she could get a better look at Ashley.

"A daughter of Athena and a new friend." I replied before Annabeth could get to it. She turned and glared at me. I smiled and shrugged.

"It's a good thing you're here Thalia. We might really need you to help." I said.

"With what?" Annabeth asked.

"Iris and my dad want me to take a quest. I just don't know who to take along yet." I said debating on whether to tell her about my thinking of inviting Rachel yet.

"Well, am I going?" She asked.

"Yes, my dad said you needed to come too. A smile spread across her face." I left out the part about me staying close to her. That might make her feel uncomfortable. "And he also said Ashley would play a big part." Annabeth's smile faltered, but she fixed it quickly. If it hadn't been for her eyes , I wouldn't have been sure if it had happened.

"Do you know what I'm going to do that's important?" She asked.

"Not yet. First we have to ask the Oracle."

Annabeth looked disgusted. "You mean-." Apparently she couldn't finish because she covered her mouth before she could say the name.

"Yep, Rachel Elizabeth Dare." I said reluctantly.

Thalia began walking to the big house, I joined her and soon everybody else did. "I don't like that girl. She's just a spoiled brat with a rich daddy."

"Actually. She's my friend." I said.

Thalia looked surprised. "Oh, well, ok then." She said. "But that doesn't mean that she's my friend now too."

"Or mine." Annabeth added.

"Is this somebody I should stay away from as well?" Ashley asked.

"Yes." Both Thalia and Annabeth said at the same time I said "No."

"She's horrible!" Annabeth said.

"NO she's not. She's just got a bad family life and you know that she's always polite!" I argued.

"Probably because she was trained that way." Thalia said.

"She was not trained to do anything!" I yelled. As I yelled it, a small tremor shook the earth beneath us. I knew almost before it happened that I had caused it.

Annabeth and Ashley fell forward and I caught them, which caused me to fall backwards onto Thalia. Since we were all touching, we were balancing again without even feeling the tremor. I willed for the shaking to stop, and it did.

"Was that an earthquake?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, but that's the biggest earthquake I've ever been through, and I live in San Francisco." Annabeth said.

I couldn't shake the feeling of awe as I saw the campers that were here beginning to stand from the earthquake that I had created.

"Percy, are you ok?" Annabeth asked.

I couldn't answer, I was too absorbed in one thought: 'I'm going to need a lot of Practice.'


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, sorry for not updating earlier. I had a class and then a ton of homework and a really uncomfortable headache. But I do have something interesting to tell you. So, I was in a deep sleep when in a dream, something told me to wake up, so I did! I guess I'm so used to being told to wake up, that I did it to my own command. (It was 4:30 at the time). I'm so weird. Well, anyways. Chapter 6! I can't believe I wrote this much, and only in a few days. I really hope you guys enjoy and don't forget to review. I know I get reviews from certain people, like, every chapter and I really like that. It means people are reading. And of course, I do not own the PJATO series or the characters, only the plot.**

Chapter 6: Secret Haven

I was sitting next to Annabeth watching the flow of campers, like I had been for the past 3 hours, before I realized that I should be training and practicing the gifts from my dad. But I couldn't do that anywhere people could see me. I had to find a place that I could do it alone.

I began to think of the quietest places. The canoe lake, the forest, the area behind the big house, my cabin.

Well, the canoe lake had Naiads flirting and weaving baskets at the bottom, the area behind the big house was where the Ares campers wailed on other campers, and my cabin seemed to be a frequent meeting place for annoying daughters of Athena, so I decided to go look out in the forest to find a good quiet, empty part of the river.

Trying to silently slip away from underneath Thalia's tree, I stood and began tip-toeing backwards. Just my luck, Annabeth peeked out of the corner of her eye and caught me.

"Where are you going Seaweed Brain?" She asked gaining the attention of the rest of the bored campers.

"Umm, just for a walk to stretch my legs." I lied.

"Alright, do you want us to come with you?" She asked.

"NO! Um, it's alright, I just want to think for a little while as well, I'll be back in a little while."

"Don't get eaten by anything."

"If I do, then I guess you can have Riptide." I said sarcastically.

"I'll hold you to that Kelp Head."

I laughed and turned and began to walk. "Don't get your hopes up!"

I walked slowly and calmly through the camp. I waved to a few friends and smiled at new campers. None of them really knew what I was up to, they only knew that our world was in havoc and nobody knew how to save it. Except me.

Halfway through camp, Mr. D walked by with two of his sons. I know, it was a surprise for me too. Mr. D never walked.

"Peter Johnson! You're cabin's leading the story telling tonight!" He yelled.

"What! I thought it was the Athena cabin!" I said. "And you're supposed to tell me a week before!" I said.

"Guess I forgot." He replied without giving me a second glance. I grunted in distaste and continued walking. Now I had to come up with a story and practice my new powers at the same time.

Finally, I made it to the forest, only to get stopped, once again.

"Percy!" Juniper called, running up to me quickly and grabbing onto my arm. Before I knew it, I was being pulled in a different direction, but still deeper into the woods.

"Where are we going." I asked.

"We need you're water powers. There are dying trees in the forest and along with them, tree nymphs." She said in her high voice.

She dragged me to where there were drying trees, I could see the leaves turning yellow and the dirt becoming dryer.

"Alright, stay right behind me and don't move." She moved behind me and the others did the same.

I reached out with one of my newest power discoveries and found the closest source of water I could find, and then pulled with my will. I knew the water was fresh and that it would quench the thirst of the dry trees. I was surprised by the amount I had brought over. It was like a tidal wave. I spread it out among a good half a mile of trees and watched it soak into the now sopping wet dirt.

"Thank you Percy!" Juniper said before helping her friends fix the out-of-place soil.

I quickly walked deeper into the woods and found a nice little trail to follow. It led me to the edge of a cliff that was looking out over the ocean. I couldn't go any further, so I began going along the edge. I was basically seeing the same thing for a good 7 minutes.

Tree, tree, rock, tree, tree, tree, stick, tree, tree, bug, tree, loose arrow, tree, tree, bug on a tree.

I was just about to give up when I came to a clearing. It was breathtaking. It was a half-circle grass field with a small, crystal blue creek going through it. There was no other half of the circle, instead, there was the cliff edge and an amazing view of the ocean.

I had found a safe haven for myself.

I walked over to the stream and decided to begin with freezing water, like I had done when Annabeth threw the water at me. I wasn't sure what I had to do really. I tried to will it to freeze, I tried to do weird hand movements, I tried to do both at the same time. Nothing was working. I tried to remember what I had done to make the water freeze, and finally, something clicked.

I had moved my arm in a blocking move, and I had tensed up. Maybe, if I tried to recreate this…

I tensed my body like I was about to fight and swung my right arm up in the air. I felt a little bit of power stream out of me and a layer of ice formed over the entire stream.

"Great, now how do I reach the water?" I asked myself, I let my body relax and let me arm drop down fast, once again, I felt power flow out of me. I watched as the ice melted and became just a regular river again.

A smile spread across my face, and I tried the melting thing again; I saw steam coming off the stream. Things were getting much better.

I practiced this move a few more times, and when I decided I had this power down, I began to work on earthquakes.

The earthquakes were more difficult to figure out than the freezing and heating. I had tried almost everything but nothing happened.

I was about to give up for the day and go back to camp, but when I yelled. "Please earth, just shake!" I felt the familiar flow of power and the earth began to shake.

"My voice." I realized. My voice was the source of my earthquake power. All I really had to do was yell.

I tried again, yelling louder. A larger earthquake shook the ground. I realized then that water was bouncing wildly out of the creek. I quickly stopped the earthquake and let my body relax. I was going to need a lot of practice to keep my powers under control.

"Percy?" Somebody called from the forest. "Hey, Seaweed brain! Where are you? Annabeth's been looking for you!" I knew this person was Thalia. Before she could find my little hiding place, I ran out to meet her. She was only a few meters away.

"Hey, were you calling me?" I asked, pretending to be the clueless kid I used to be.

She looked at me suspiciously. "Yeah, Annabeth was looking for you. She guessed you would be out here because there were too many campers everywhere else."

"Darn wisdom." I muttered under my breath. "Where is she?" I asked her, a little bit more loudly.

"You're cabin." She replied with a sly smile.

"Of course she is. It's the hottest meeting place of the century!" I said sarcastically. Thalia just laughed.

"You know Percy, she just likes hanging around with you."

"Well, she is my best friend. I would hope so." I replied.

Thalia rolled her eyes and murmured, "Clueless boy," To the sky.

We walked back into the camp silently and as soon as she saw the other huntresses, she was off to do her own thing. I made my way into my cabin. Annabeth was sitting on her bed with her arms crossed. She reminded me of my mom when I came home late from the movies.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked.

"No, you were only gone for 6 hours!" She yelled.

"Well, sorry. I had a lot of thinking to do."

"Percy, I have a feeling your hiding something from me and everybody else." She stood and came to face me.

I gulped. Darn extra wisdom! I couldn't lie to Annabeth this time. She could read it in my eyes that I was hiding something. "You're right, I am hiding something. But it's something I can't tell you, or anyone else." I said, hoping she would let it drop. Of course, I was never lucky when it came to Annabeth.

"What is it? You can trust me."

"It's not a trust issue; it's an order from someone very powerful. You remember that prophecy you couldn't tell me until you were sure the time was right? It's kind of like that. I can't tell anybody until I'm positive that I won't get punished for it."

She seemed to actually think about this for a little while. "Alright. But when that time comes, I expect to be the first told."

"Yes ma'am." I replied bowing.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't b such a Seaweed Brain."

"That's impossible." I replied.


	7. note from author

Hey, sorry for not updating today, it's just that my mom has been making me study for a good 4 hours today and I was schooling for the rest of it. I will have another chapter done by tomorrow though. I thought I had it done, but it was still under 1,000 words short and I think you guys are too cool to deserve such a short chapter. I'm going to make it longer, alrighty? I hope you read it tomorrow. It's basically the story telling and a little something else, (There's going to be a tiny bit of fluff.) Thanks!


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, sorry for not updating sooner. I'm not going to give excuses for today. I'm just going to say that I wasn't given the time to finish I earlier. I'm trying my best, and that's what matters. I really hope you enjoy this chapter!**

When Annabeth left, I was drained, but I had a story to tell. The only problem was that I wasn't a good story teller and I hadn't even started on a story.

Story telling was in an hour and I would have to stand up in front of the entire camp. It wasn't that I was bad at public speaking, it was just that… I was bad a public speaking; and now I had to tell an entire story.

The kind of stories we were allowed to tell were either supposed to be really old legends, or stories that you make up on your own. Either way, you had to use our world as the main world. I chose to tell the story of my second quest. There were a lot of new campers who hadn't learned the story yet and I wanted them to learn from my mistakes, I know, total brain boost right there.

I made my way down to the camp fire where everybody was already waiting. I knew that I was late because of the glares that I was receiving from the campers. I sat in the middle of the area on a big plastic chair that one of the Satyr's had brought out for me to wait for my introduction. Chiron stood up, showing his real legs, and moved toward the place where I was sitting.

"Thank you for gracing us with you presence master story teller." He said in an irritated sarcastic way. I heard a few snickers. He faced the rest of the campers. "Thank you for all waiting so patiently for our dear story teller today. Please welcome Perseus Jackson." He then went and sat down. The flames behind me were a dull blue. I knew the campers were bored and tired. I just wanted to get this over with.

"Five years ago, a great quest took place. Few of you may remember, few of you have yet to learn of it, but I am here to tell the tale that I like to title, 'Quest to the Sea of Monsters'. When I said that, there was a sizzling from behind me and everybody looked, there was nothing there, but I knew that sizzling coming from our camp fire wasn't normal. I turned and continued.

"Now, this wasn't an ordinary quest, and the beginning of it started out like any other. How, you might ask, do I know this? Well, I was there and watching the entire time." There was another sizzling, but I tried to ignore it. I was beginning to get really into the story telling.

"It started out like any other day, a half-blood in his school trying to learn things that may seem impossible. But this half-blood had a friend. He wasn't an ordinary friend, he was a kid off the street, or so he thought. This friend was a Cyclops. Not a bad one, a friend, a true soul brother, but a Cyclops none the less. So how did this young hero find that his friend was a Cyclops? It started in PE, there were a few kids visiting the school…" I continued telling my tale in the best way that I could. When I got to the part about meeting Hermes, there was more sizzling and everybody looked behind me at the fire, then I heard the sound of oohs and awes from the crowd. I turned to see actual images of the story I told play out. When I turned back to the crowd, my eye fell on a familiar face. It was Hermes himself hiding behind the wooden bleachers. A smile spread across my face. So he was the one doing this.

'No Percy, I'm just the messenger. I brought you another bundle of new powers from your father, and I might have thrown in a few myself." I heard his chuckle echo in my head. "But you're going to have to discover them on your own. Good luck young hero." He then disappeared. I felt my frustration deepen. My father expects me to get all these powers down by the time I leave for my quest? I quickly remove those thoughts from my mind, I have a story to tell, and now that I knew that I was doing that to the fire, I could make it 20 times more interesting.

I saw the fire get brighter and brighter with every sentence I told. The campers were engrossed in the new fire TV.

"And with that, the young half-blood returned to camp and helped the daughter of Ares save the day." The ending fire image was of the fleece being placed in the tree and health flooding the camp. "That night, a new friend was discovered, she's among us this very day, but that story is left for another to tell." Then I went and sat in my cheap plastic chair. I heard clapping and even a few cheers from the group and I smiled triumphantly. I had told a story everybody loved.

Chiron walked up beside me and looked at me with pride. "You are a very good story teller Percy. How did you do the thing with the fire. I believed only Hestia could do that."

"I didn't do it. I just went along with it. I thought maybe it was Mr. D."

"Well, we can figure that out later. I think it's time for lights out. You look half dead."

I nodded. I felt half dead, with all the practicing and creativity today, I didn't think I would make it back to my cabin without falling asleep.

I was asleep before my head touched the pillow, but I wished I hadn't fallen asleep that night. I don't think anybody would have.

_It started out like any other dream, I was underwater near my father's palace when suddenly, it erupted into flames, which was weird because it was under water. I could hear screaming coming from inside and I quickly tried to put out the fire. For some reason, my powers weren't working. I realized then that I couldn't breathe. I desperately began swimming to the surface, but I was too deep. I began to gasp for air and I could feel the salt water rush down my throat. I heard laughing as I began to drowned and the voice that could only belong to Kronos talking._

"_You didn't actually think that you were safe did you? I feed off your mistakes Jackson, I live for your fear. I have minions watching you everywhere…" then his voice faded and then I was no longer in the burning sea, I was now standing on solid ground next to the pit to Tartarus. At first I was all alone, then Grover was standing next to me. He was looking onto the pit mournfully, then turned to me with disappointed eyes._

"_Why did you do it Percy? Why did you keep it to yourself? You had us to confide in. Why didn't you trust us?" her asked._

"_What are you talking about G? I didn't keep anything from you?"_

"_No, but you asked me to keep it from her. She's so disappointed in you Percy, she wants nothing to do with you because you kept it a secret." Suddenly, I noticed a thick green vine was wrapping around his leg and as I was about to tell him, it bulled him in. He bleated mournfully as he disappeared. _

"_Grover!" I yelled into the pit. I watched as darkness swallowed him up. Suddenly I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder that I knew too well was Annabeth." I turned to look into her sad eyes._

"_Why didn't you tell me Percy?" She asked. _

"_Tell you what?" _

"_That she was coming? I'm sorry, but I can't trust you anymore and friendship is about trust. I guess we can't be friends anymore." She said turning away._

"_No Annabeth please!" I said standing and trying to get her to face me._

"_You didn't tell me she was coming Percy!" She hissed at me. "If you had told me that she was coming, I would have been more prepared, I could have come up with a plan; but you didn't tell me and I lost to her selfish games."_

"_Who are you talking about Annabeth?" I asked, grabbing onto her arm so she would face me._

"_You know who I'm talking about." She replied. Just then, another vine came out of nowhere and grabbed her by her ankle, as it began to pull, I grabbed Annabeth's arms and began to pull against it. Trying to save my best friend._

"_Let go Percy." She replied._

"_No, you're my best friend Annabeth, I won't let this happen to you!" I replied._

"_You just don't get it do you?" She asked. "You already let it happen to me when you let __her__ into your life. You just completed the process by not telling me what you should have."_

"_I'm not letting you go Annabeth." I could feel my eyes watering, having my best friend to let go and let her die wasn't something I really wanted to do, even if she told me to._

"_Let me go Percy, you don't have me anymore, you have a Dare to get to." With that, she let go of my grasp and I watched in despair as she fell._

_Even before I could register what she told me, the earth beneath me began to shake and my body was thrown back and forth vigorously. Rocks were falling from the ceiling and just as I was about to be crushed by one…_

I woke up to somebody shaking my shoulders. I was in a cold sweat and breathing hard.

"PERCY! PERCY! Are you ok?" I looked up to see a concerned Annabeth. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and without thinking, I threw my arms around her and hugged her tight.

"Umm, Percy?" She asked. I quickly realized what I was doing and let go. I saw her blush, and I immediately did too. But I didn't care how awkward this was, I was just glad that she wasn't deep in Tartarus.

"Umm, you just saved me from a really horrible dream." Was the only excuse I could come up with.

She smiled. "Well then you're welcome. So we better get to breakfast…" She said and went to wait for me outside so I could change.

While I was alone, I began to think. If that dream was a half-blood dream, then I was going to need to find out what it was about and how I could stop it.


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! I'm really sorry, I've been neglecting this story and I have to say it's probably that best I've ever written. It's the weekend so I can probably get another 3 or 4 chapters done by Sunday Night. Hope you like this chapter!**

I quickly changed into proper attire for walking around the camp site, although almost nothing would make me happier to walk around camp in pj,s. I looked at me alarm and realized that it wasn't even close to 7, why was Annabeth here so early? Not to mention that the reason I needed to get up was to call a meeting.

I took a step outside and found Annabeth sitting on the edge of my wooden porch facing the sea. I smiled and quietly walked up behind her. I was glad that she didn't hear me because that would ruin my plan.

"BOO!" She jumped higher than a truck.

"Geez Percy! Don't do that!" She said turning around to face me. I shrugged and began walking toward the pavilion. She joined me.

"So, why are you here so early? Breakfast isn't until 8 and the meeting is at 7."

"I meant to say meeting." She said almost a little too quickly.

"Well, ok, but that still doesn't explain why you're here so early."

"Umm, I… wanted to know who would be coming along with us on the quest, other than me Ashley and possibly Thalia."

"I'm not sure yet, just like I told you, we need to ask Rachel first." I said a little bit guiltily. Just as I said those words, something in my head just clicked. I knew what my dream was about last night. Dream Annabeth's word echoed through my mind.

'_Let me go Percy, you don't have me anymore, you have a Dare to get to.'_

I immediately knew that if I didn't tell Annabeth that I was planning on Rachel coming along, then I knew I would lose her. And Grover too.

"Percy, you ok?" She asked. I had to agree that I wasn't acting like myself. Ever since waking up from that dream, I was a little off, and I could tell that she was worried. But I couldn't tell her yet that I was planning on bringing Rachel along. That would just make everything harder on me, I would tell her though. At the moment, I just wouldn't tell her the full truth.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I want to ask you. If I was keeping a secret from you and I knew you wouldn't like it, then should I risk telling you, or should I not tell you and risk our friendship?" Wow, that was blunt.

She looked kind of stunned, she didn't open her mouth to reply, she just looked at me with wide eyes. Finally, after an awkward silence, she spoke. "Well, if it was something that would keep me from harm, then I wouldn't tell; on the other hand if it was something that would hurt me, then I would try work up the courage and just spit it out as soon as I could."

She surprised me by giving me two options and I knew which option I needed to take. "Um, do you promise not to get too mad at me and try to see from my point of view?" I asked.

"I can try, but I won't promise anything other than the fact that I will remain your friend." Great, her extra wisdom was showing.

"Alright, I stopped and faced her, hoping that she wouldn't get mad at me, although I knew that I was probably going to get punched in the arm twice by her and probably three times by Thalia. "I want Ra-." I was cut off by somebody tapping me on the back. I turned to see a little kid about 12 years old standing shyly behind me. He looked lost and confused. I turned back to Annabeth. "Go on to the pavilion and blow the conch, I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll tell you what I want to say afterwards." She nodded and began walking away.

I turned back to the kid that kind of reminded me of myself my first year here. "Hey, what can I help you with?" I asked. Being one of the head counselors here and having gone on more quests than anyone else had gotten me popularity from the newer members.

"I'm Mikey Mamroa. Umm, your story last night was awesome. It happened 5 years ago right?" He asked.

"Yes, it did. I'm Perseus, Percy Jackson." I replied offering my hand, He took it and an image of Hermes flashed across my mind, but then everything went back to normal. I tried to ignore it.

"Can you tell me who were the people in it because I want to know if their still alive so I can thank them."

"Sure, they're still alive. Why do you want to thank them?"

"Because my mom was on that cruise ship under that Luke guy's spell. When they had finally released that Pegasus, they had released all the other passengers from that spell as well. They had all gotten off safely thanks to those two heroes."

I was surprised to hear all this. "How does your mom remember all this?" I asked.

"She could see through the mist, at least when it was still there."

"Umm, not thanks are needed, it was a pleasure."

"Wait, you were the one on the boat?" He asked.

I smiled sheepishly. "Guilty as charged."

"And who was the other hero? Do you still have your Pegasus?"

"The other hero that was with me was Annabeth, you just saw her a few moments ago when we were talking. And yes I still have Blackjack. Do you want to meet him?" I was already calling him with my mind, but it never hurt to ask.

"Of course I would! I love horses, especially if they have wings!" When he was finishing his sentence, Blackjack landed next to me.

'Yo boss, who's the kid? Want me to give him a ride somewhere.'

"No, his mom was on the Princess Andromeda. He wanted to meet the Pegasus that helped his mom escape."

'Of course he does, who wouldn't?' He whinnied out loud.

"Stop being such a big-head. Accept his thanks and go back to your stable." I said teasingly. Blackjack had learned to converse very well these past few years.

"You can talk to him?" Mikey asked curiously.

"My father's Poseidon, creator of horses. I of course inherited some of his power of horse languages."

'Yeah, and you're not very good at it.' Blackjack complained.

"Oh, shut it and go brag to your friends." I said. He whinnied again, nipped at the back of my head and flew back to the stables.

"How come you speak in English out loud if they have their own language?"

"Because that's just the way you hear it. Mortals would here whinnies and snorts and stuff." **(I kind of just made that up and I feel guilty. I don't like straying away from the original books). **"So, you're new here? Do you know who you're parent is?" I asked.

"No, but Chiron said he thinks it might be Hermes. But he also said that I would know for sure within the next two days."

"Why the next two days?"

"Because that's when I turn 13, that's what the rule is right? That every hero must be claimed by the time their 13?"

"That would be correct."

"Good." He sighed.

"OH." Just then I heard the conch blow. "I need to go. You should probably come too. This is a meeting for the entire camp."

8

8

8

8

Once everybody was seated and ready, I stood and began to speak.

"As you know, the mist has been dissipating, we don't know why, and we don't know how. We can only hope that when our quest takes place, we find our answers quickly. Right now, I have only 2 people that I'm positive will be coming with me on this quest. But I cannot make any other decisions right now. WE must wait until I go and find the Oracle, which could possibly be days." Annabeth came up behind me and tapped my shoulder. I turned to look at her and she pointed to the entrance. Under the arch stood my red-headed, prophecy-telling, mortal friend. "Or a little less than 20 seconds." Everybody turned to look where I was looking. Most of them recognized Rachel and had mixed emotions. I quickly turned back to everybody to finish the meeting.

"Our world is still in danger and we need people to keep it from being discovered. That is why I am sending out the best people for the job of control." I reluctantly turned to the Ares cabin. I knew what I was about to do was going to raise unneeded questions, but it had to be done.

"Clarisse, I am putting you in charge of several campers and trusting you with the job of keeping the mortal world away from ours." She looked absolutely flabbergasted, but stood.

"I accept." I nodded to her as politely as I could muster then turned to the rest of the campers and named of those who would be under Clarisse's order.

"The meeting is now ended and good luck to all of you."

I then went to Rachel. She smiled at me shyly and nodded to Annabeth who didn't even bother to return it.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Don't worry Percy, it wasn't me who came, it was the Oracle of Delphi. She has something to say to you.

"Well, let me have it." I said. Rachel's eyes went green and she slumped against the arch.

"_A group of 6 shall travel west, to the majesty of wonder called Isle Blest, _

_There they shall meet a blinded friend, who once had met a disgraced end._

_The cursed ones' fate shall be revealed, and relationships of broken hearts shall heal._

_And finally when there is none to gain, they must face a threat that's worse than pain."_

She turned back to normal and looked at Annabeth and me curiously. "What did I say?"

I looked at Annabeth nervously. I knew exactly who I would be taking along with me on the quest and it wasn't going to be easy for all of us to get along.


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! I promised you at least 3 chapters this weekend, so I will be completely focused on having those three done by tonight! Read them and review. And I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday. Enjoy!**

I knew that I only had a little time left to tell Annabeth that Rachel would be coming along. I told Rachel the prophecy and let her and Annabeth come up with their own ideas while I sat there and waited. Finally, after what felt like forever, Annabeth turned to me.

"I think I have an idea. 6 will travel west pretty much states itself, then to the majesty of wonder called isle blest. I think that would say that we need to find a way to isle Blest, which would be in the middle of the lake in the underworld."

"Well, I think that meeting a blinded friend who had once met a disgraced end means that a friend that you once knew died a very bad death will be there with directions for you." Rachel said, causing Annabeth's face to turn red. I didn't say anything. "Did you two know anybody who was blind?"

"No, we did not." Annabeth replied, then she started solving the next line so that Rachel didn't get to it. "The cursed ones fate shall be revealed. I think that means that someone who was destined to die on this quest will she shot a glance at Rachel and I knew that she now wanted her to come along. It was now or never.

"Rachel, I think that you should come along on the quest." Annabeth glared at me, but didn't say a thing. "And I wanted to let you know that it will be dangerous, Annabeth just told a part of the prophecy that could happen to you. Do you want to come?"

Rachel smiled at me and it made me feel uncomfortable by that way her eyes focused on me and only me. I was almost writhing under her gaze. Luckily, Annabeth seemed to notice so she pulled Rachel's attention away. "And relationships of broken heart shall heal. I think that an old friend that had turned away will come back to us." I agreed, and Rachel just nodded.

"Next, when there is none to gain, they must face a threat worse than pain. I believe that means when there is none to gain, as in when it seems like we had won, something will threaten us with something really badly."

We then went to go find Chiron. We needed to tell him what was going to be happening with the quest and everything. I refused to tell Annabeth who the other people that I wanted to come because I wasn't sure if they would be coming. I had to ask them first, and one of them wasn't even at camp yet. Who doesn't listen to their cousin's warning?

We finally found Chiron in the big house. He was playing piccolo with Mr. D like he always is.

"Chiron." I asked. He turned to look at us and he knew that he was needed. "Excuse me, I need to go to a meeting." He put down his cards and led us to his room. We all sat down in chairs that he had.

"The prophecy?" He asked. We told him the prophecy and what we expected what every line meant. He seemed to agree with most of it.

"And may I ask who you are planning on bringing on this quest of yours?"

"Me, Annabeth, Ashley, Rachel, Thalia, and Nico." I said naming off all the people I knew that I would need.

Chiron nodded his head. "Sounds like a winning group. I'll give you one day Percy to gather your group together and prepare. Although, I want to know why you want to bring Rachel with you?"

Annabeth crossed her arms. "I want to know that as well."

"Because we need somebody who can see and who can hopefully tell us prophecies of what we need to know." I said.

"Very well then. She will be allowed to go, but not to the underworld with you. She must wait on top, preferably with Thalia." He understood that it had to be Thalia with her on top because her father was the god of the sky. Along with the fact that I was leading the quest, Annabeth hated Rachel, and Nico was Hades' son.

We agreed and then left to go pack. Rachel would be staying in the big house and we had to hope that Nico would show up within the next few hours. While we were walking on our way back to our cabins, Annabeth pulled me behind hers and smacked my head. "Why do you want HER to come along?" She spat, and I hoped that this wouldn't turn out to be like

"I tried to tell you. Is this worse than what you thought it would be?"

"Yeah it is!"She yelled, causing me to flinch.

"I'm sorry. Please, can we just forget this ever happened? It's only one quest."

"Yeah, and how many had she been on now?"

"Please Annabeth?" I begged. I didn't want to lose her. She was the best thing that ever happened in my life. She had to forgive me. It was already looking like my dream was beginning.

She crossed her arms. "We'll see." Then she walked off in the direction of her cabin, leaving me to go to my own. Once I walked in, I saw Thalia sitting on my bed playing with the shield watch that Tyson had given me.

"So, I heard that you wanted me to join you're quest." She asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

She stood and crossed her arms. "I was standing right outside the door when I overheard you. I also overheard your little argument with Annabeth." I felt myself flush. I hadn't wanted anybody to hear that. "I accept the offer to go with you on the quest. But I refuse to talk to you like a friend until Annabeth see's you as one again."

"Thanks Thalia… I think." I replied. "Do you know if Nico is here yet?" I asked.

"No, I haven't seen him. If I were you, I'd send him an iris message telling him to get his powers of death up here, because I'm not waiting for him when we should be questing." With that, she threw me my watch/shield and walked out without giving me so much as a smile or bye. I guess she was serious, of course, Thalia's always serious when it comes to her friendship.

I packed my bag and pulled a drachma from out of my secret stash that I hid in the deepest part of my water floor. Then I went over to my fountain and threw it into the steam. "Nico, son of Hades." After waiting for a few seconds, Nico popped up, I recognized the place that he was in. It was only a few miles away from here. The only problem was that he was being chased by a hell hound. I wondered why the message was moving and how, but I cut off that though and thought about why a dog of the underworld was it chasing Nico, the son of the ruler of the underworld?"

"Nico, are you ok?" I asked.

He was panting and had any scratches all over him.

"I'm… weak… need… help." He said. He stumbled, but managed to catch himself and keep going. But he wouldn't last until he got to camp. I immediately called Blackjack and ran out of the front of the hill. He met me there and I hopped on telling him where we needed to go. He flew me there, but I had to get off before we entered the city limits. I quickly ran into the city and the first thing I saw was my younger cousin running for his life. He looked like he was about to drop over dead any second.

"Nico!" I yelled, he looked up and I saw his eyes widen in relief, he threw in the last bit of effort he had an sprinted to me, as soon as he reached me, he collapsed into a heap at my feet. I lifted him by the arms, and threw him over my shoulders before running into the hiding place I left Blackjack. I lifted him on top and tied him on the back.

'Fly him to camp, make sure he's helped, then come get me. I need to take care of this monster." I said

Blackjack agreed, then flew off, leaving me with Riptide and my Shield/watch.

I walked into the city where the Hell hound was sniffing around for Nico. I stood right in front of him, catching the attention of hiding mortals. I tried to ignore them. "Hey! Drool face!" I yelled. He turned around showing his red eyes. "Looking for something?" I asked. He growled and jumped at me, which I dodged, then while his back was turned, I swiped at him. I lopped off a good part of his fur, and connected with a little bit of skin. He howled and turned back to me. He then tried to bite me. I thrust Riptide upward and connected with something. I was disappointed when I saw it was a tooth. I pulled out again, bringing the tooth with it.

Once again, I had to tuck and roll out of the way and dive behind a BMW. The truck was lifted by a huge canine maw. I thought I was done for… until I saw that the vehicle was stuck in its mouth. I almost laughed at how it shook its head trying to get it out. But I had to kill this thing, before it killed me. I thrust my sword into its chest and it disintegrated.

I was running out of the city before anybody started asking me how I had done that, but I hadn't forgotten to grab the tooth. It was sharp and I would find something to do with it.

Blackjack wasn't back yet, so I started walking. I had made it halfway before Blackjack came to pick me up.

'Took you long enough.' I said.

'Sorry boss. The ladies were complimenting me on my amazing rescue mission.'

I raised an eyebrow. 'You're rescue mission?' I asked.

'Well, I may have exaggerated a little.' I sighed and he flew me back. He let me off at the entrance to the big house where I walked in to find Rachel sitting there.

"DO you know how he is?" I asked.

"He's fine, just beat. We may have to leave a little later than thought."

"It's fine. He needs to rest. I'll go see how he is later. For the moment, why don't you come down to dinner with us? You can sit with me Annabeth and Grover."

"I don't think Annabeth likes me very much." She said.

"I don't think she likes me very much at the moment either, but I do know that she's probably dying to know what had happened with Nico, so this will give you a chance to try to make friends."

Rachel agreed and stood up to join me. "Do you even know why she hates me?" She asked.

"No, do you?" I wondered what it could be.

She rolled her eyes and muttered "Clueless boy." Under her breath barely loud enough for me to hear before we walked off to join my two best friends at dinner.

I know some of you are wondering if this story is a prachel, but it's not, even though Annabeth thinks it is. So don't worry. I don't necessarily hate Rachel, I just don't like the thought of her and Percy together. Ok guys! I need ideas for new powers. I won't use all of them cause I have about 30 right now. I know it seems like a lot, but I want to know what ideas you have! Please review!


	11. Chapter 10

**I'm soooo sorry! I promised you three chapters on Sunday and I only gave you one. But my mom came in and told me that I had to stop typing for the day (She threatened me with carpal tunnel :0). It was only noon. So I grabbed a notebook and started writing in that. It took a good couple of hours to copy it all down onto the computer, but here it is. Please don't hate me! I was only able to get one more chapter done. To make up for it, I'll make the next chapter 2000 words instead of 1000. Review! I still need more power ideas!**

Rachel and I went to have dinner. Annabeth, Grover, Juniper and Thalia already sat there.

"Hey guys!" I said sitting down in between Annabeth and Grover.

"Hey Percy." Grover and Juniper said, Annabeth and Thalia just glared. Rachel silently sat on the other side of Juniper.

"Are you ready to leave? Just in case Nico has a miraculous recovery and we can leave tomorrow like planned." I asked.

"No." Both the girls said. I gave a forced smile and took a bite of my veggie burrito.

"Percy, what exactly happened to Nico?" Annabeth asked. Just as I expected, she was curious.

"I don't really know. I had sent him and Iris message, going to tell him we needed him here by tomorrow, but when it showed him, he was being chased by a hellhound. He looked tired and hurt, he even asked for help, so I jumped on Blackjack and flew out there. He passed out at my feet and I sent him back here while I took care of the hellhound. It was easier than most monsters, but the hardest hellhound I've ever faced so far."

Annabeth looked confused. "Percy, hellhounds are from the underworld, why was Hades' son being chased by one?"

I shrugged. "I don't know; that was something that occurred to me as well." I remembered that dream I had had the night before. "But I think I have an idea who might be involved."

"Well, who?" Thalia demanded.

"I think it might be Kronos' minions. There are some of them still out there, and they are trying to fight back." I replied.

"Why do you think him?" Annabeth asked.

"I had a dream last night that some things were going to happen. In the dream, Kronos spoke, telling me that his minions were still at work. I think that the hellhound might have been one of the minions, and I think that they are also the reason for the disappearing mist."

"That's a possibility, but we can't be sure just quite yet."

We talked about the quest and our theories for a little bit longer, and then we decided to turn in for the night. I wanted to check on Nico to see if we could leave tomorrow, so I went with Rachel to the big house. Rachel muttered a good night and went to her room, while I kept walking to Nico's.

I opened the door and saw him open his eyes a crack. "Hey Percy." He moaned.

"Hey dude. You ok?" I asked.

"At the moment, I don't think I should answer that." He replied. OK, not good.

"Umm, I know this might make things a little bit worse, but we're going on a quest, and we're waiting for you. We can wait for a few days, but our original plan was to leave tomorrow."

He looked at me as if I was crazy. "I don't think that's going to happen."

It was silent for a little bit. "So, are you ever going to tell me why you're in this state?"

He took a deep breath. "I got your message, I was living with a woman who could see through the mist, she saw and refused to drive me here."

"Why?"

"Because she said that instead of her being 'lucky' enough to see everything that's really going on, everybody would be able to see what she see's, everybody had thought she was crazy."

"Then why did she allow you to live with her?"

"Because she thought that having a half-blood live with her would protect her when instead we only seem to attract monsters." He laughed a weak laugh. "When she noticed that, she started treating me like a pet, feeding me only certain times a day. She had started sending me to SCHOOL." He looked appalled. I would guess he was since he hadn't gone to school in 4 years.

"I began coming, about 30 miles away, I ran into that beast, and I used most of my energy to bring me here by shadow traveling, unfortunately, the hellhound knew how to shadow travel too, and he followed me. You found me 20 minutes after I began running."

"Well, you're safe and here now. Do you need anything?"

"A drink of water would be nice. My throat feels like a desert." I looked around for water and spotted a bottle sitting across the room. I used my water controlling power to bring it to me. I opened it and poured some into his mouth, accidentally spilling it on him as well.

"Sorry, let me get that." I tried wiping some of it off with my bare hand. When my skin hit the water that had met his skin, I felt a little jolt of energy, and Nico jumped. I looked to see what it might have been. I saw the water I had tried to brush off flow over his cuts and bruises and wash away the blood and grime. When the water left those injured areas, they were perfectly healed. Not even a mark.

"When did you learn to do that?" He asked, and I got a feeling that was telling me to tell him. It was a good feeling too.

"My father's been giving me new powers for the quest. I didn't know I could do that until now."

"Well, I feel a hundred times better." He replied.

"Hey, can you keep this little power thing a secret from everybody else? My father asked me to keep it until I knew it was the right time."

"Then why did you tell me right now?"

"I felt it was the right time to tell you. I guess my father assumed I would need somebody to confide in."

"Well, at least I won't be left out of the action." He laughed. "Are we leaving tomorrow?"

I was so confused, here he was, barely healed, and he was asking if we would be leaving tomorrow? "Don't you want to stay and heal?"

"Actually, your new little power renewed my energy and health. I feel like I could run 10 miles right now."

"Well, tomorrow it is then!" I said standing. He stood as well to stretch. "And if Chiron asks, the ambrosia worked wonders on you." I said.

He nodded and jumped back in bed. "Before you go. I want to know what's going on between you and Annabeth?"

I looked at him. "How did you know?"

"I overheard her talking to Thalia about how you were making her insecure, and sad. You know, the kind of girl drama you want to avoid."

"Well, at the moment, she's mad at me for not telling her I wanted Rachel to join, and I hope it doesn't stay that way."

"The red head?" He asked, and I nodded. "Do you know why Annabeth hates her?"

"How come everybody knows this but me?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe because you're stupid?" He said.

I shot him a glare at his smirk. "I'm going back to my cabin. Be ready to leave by 8 tomorrow morning." I said before walking out and going to Rachel's room, I knocked on the door and yelled. "We're leaving tomorrow at 8! Be ready!"

I then went down to the Athena cabin and found Annabeth and Thalia talking. I walked in and stood in front of them. They looked up and frowned. I looked at Annabeth apologetically, although I felt sorry for myself. This was the girl I had to 'stay close to' during the entire quest, and I had a feeling that neither of us were going to like it. "Yes Percy?" Thalia asked politely, but in a like she was talking to a man she just met on the street.

"Nico feels better, we're leaving tomorrow morning at 8. I need you to be ready. Tell Ashley too." I said before walking out without another word.

I went to my cabin and immediately fell asleep right away, drifting into a luckily dreamless sleep.


	12. Chapter 11

**Hey! I'm back baby! My classes are almost over. They end this Thursday. Well, some of you guys are freaking out that Percy will end up falling for Rachel or even one of the other girls, don't worry, he's completely head over heels for Annabeth, he just doesn't know it yet, but the rest of the group does. I just wanted to add a bit of drama to spice up the story and make it longer so there was more to read. I hate Perachel completely! I still need new powers, but I have 2 requests that are going to be in the next chapter! I do not own PJATO. Please review. I know most people don't like to, but it encourages me and makes me want to write more.**

I was up very early the next morning. The sun was still rising and I could hear the songs of morning birds. I quickly stood and got ready for the quest. I grabbed a backpack from under my bed and filled it with several pairs of clothes, a baggie of Golden Drachma's, a baggie of mortal money, and snacks. AS I walked out the door, I stuck Riptide in my pocket and the shield on my wrist. I also decided to try something new. I took the hell hound tooth and tried making a permafrost handle. It surprisingly worked. I then went to go see if everybody was awake.

I went to the Athena cabin first, because I knew they would already be awake. I'm sure they were ready to go on this quest, even though I wish Ashley had gotten a little longer to train. I also wished that I had a manual on girls. Annabeth was starting to worry me, the dream was almost coming true. If it did then I would have failed my dad's order to keep her close.

I knocked on the door and waited 3 seconds before someone came to open it. It was Anthony. He had been here for two years. Long enough to see the war, but new enough to not fight in it. "Are Annabeth and Ashley around?" I asked. He opened the door all the way and motioned to a section of the room. I saw Ashley standing there putting clothes into a backpack.

"Hey, are you and Annabeth ready?" I asked. She shook her head. "Somebody decided to pull a prank and turn the alarm clock off. Annabeth woke on pure instinct. She's in the shower right now, though her bags are already packed.

"I'm not in the shower." A voice said from behind me. I turned and started choking on air. Annabeth was standing there in pants and a gray tank top. Her shoulders were bare and her hair was still wet. It was glinting in the morning light that was pouring in from the open door. "Um, Percy? Are you ok?" She asked. I mentally slapped myself.

"Yeah." I was still coughing from choking. "Just swallowed wrong." I turned away and pretended to cough while I actually turned red. Once I was sure that the redness was gone, I stopped coughing and turned to the girls. "We're leaving in a few minutes. Be ready by 8." It was 7:30 at the moment. I decided to go find Thalia next.

I went up to the Artemis cabin and knocked on the door. I heard whispers from in inside. Nobody answered. I sighed. "Thalia! If you're in there, were leaving in a few minutes!" I yelled. Then I went to go see if Nico was ok to begin the quest.

Rachel was sitting out front with a backpack already over her shoulder, sipping a glass of lemonade. "You ready?" I asked. She nodded.

"Been ready for an hour now." She stood and began walking to the new parking lot we had installed. I watched her go, and then went to Nico's room. He was rushing around the room crazily and grabbing things out of shelves and niches.

"Umm, Nico, are you ok?" I asked. He turned to me.

"Yeah, are we leaving now? I can't wait to get this started."

"Why are you so excited, this could be a pretty dangerous quest."

"Yeah, but it's the first real quest I'll be on. Last year was the war, and before that was 4 years ago when I went on a quest, and I was off doing my own thing the rest of the time."

"That's not true, you helped me come up with the idea of swimming in the River Styx."

'No, I showed up to give you the idea, I wasn't with you the entire time."

I sighed and picked up one of his bags, and began walking out the door. "Let's go. We need to leave in the next 10 minutes if we want to get to Pennsylvania by tomorrow."

We met the rest of the group out in the parking lot. Annabeth and Thalia were talking and Ashley was looking curiously at Rachel. "We all ready?" I asked. They all confirmed they were.

Ashley came up to me. "Why can't we take a plane?"

"Because Zeus doesn't like his brother's kids on his territory. Trust me, I'm all for riding on the ground." I looked for Argus, he was sitting in a little silver GMC with car keys in his hand.

"There he is." I said pointing. We all walked over and he handed me the keys.

"I'm driving?" I asked him. He nodded and walked off towards the big house.

Thalia and Rachel began putting bags in the back seat. Annabeth glared at me as she walked over to help.

"Annabeth's still mad at me."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You really don't know why, do you? I bet even Calypso knows, it's so obvious."

"WHAT'S SO OBVIOUS? Nobody will tell me!"

"Geez, you really are a Seaweed Brain. I'm not going to tell you why, it's your job to find out."

Chiron came up behind us and patted us both on the backs. "Are you sure your fine Nico. You didn't look so good last night."

"I'm sure, I feel much better than last night. I guess good things come to you when you least expect it." He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. I guess h meant my powers.

"Well then, that's good. Good luck." He said before turning to me. "Percy, I want you to know that I'm proud of you, and I have proof that so is your father."

I was glad that Chiron was proud of me. He was like family. My dad was proud of me too, even though I've messed up so much. "Thanks Chiron… you have proof?" I asked. Chiron nodded, then pulled out what looked like a brown fabric beanie with a sewn gold Trident on the front . "Umm, I guess I should thank my dad." I said awkwardly. I had been expecting armor or something that could do something cool, like Annabeth's baseball cap. Instead, I got a beanie; although it wouldn't hurt to thank my dad for thinking of me. Maybe it did have magical powers, though I doubted it.

Chiron seemed to see my disappointment. "Percy, this isn't a normal hat. I had this delivered to me by Hermes, he said he was delivering more than just a hat. Of course, I asked him what he meant, he replied that he was delivering secrets and ways to understand hidden talents."

The others could probably see my face light up I was so happy. This wasn't just a beanie, it was the key to understanding how to control my new powers. "Really?" I asked, reaching out a receiving the hat from him.

"Yes, but there's more to it. If you uncap Riptide, the beanie will form into a helmet. It's called Cyclone."

I put Cyclone on my head. It fit perfectly. I took Riptide. "Should I try it out?" I asked.

"If you want." He replied as he took a step back. I uncapped Riptide and I could feel the beanie on my head grow heavier and thicker. Then, I felt an amazing flood of understanding of my powers flow into my mind, but I wasn't informed of any new powers with Cyclone. Maybe it only let me understand the powers I already knew. I capped Riptide and the helmet turned back into a beanie.

I closed my eyes and thanked my father. I got a waft of sea breeze and knew he had heard me.

"Well, are we going to go or not?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, let's head out of here." I got in the driver's seat and put the key's in the ignition. Everybody was still standing outside. I looked at all of them individually. "Are you going to get in?" I asked.

Nico ran and got in the back. "What, no shotgun?" I asked. I had expected Nico out of all of them to jump into the seat.

"He's right, I would have expected you to immediately get into the front seat." Thalia said looking very confused and suspicious.

Nico smiled. "Do you really trust him behind the wheel? Especially for hundreds of miles?" He asked pointing his thumb at me.

"Good point." Rachel and Thalia said quickly getting into the back.

"Hey!" I protested, but they ignored me and sat in the only two available back seats there were. The bags took up the rest of the back seats.

Annabeth and Ashley stood outside, probably trying to find a way to squeeze into the back as well.

"I'm not a horrible driver! I have my license! I am almost 17 you know." I said.

Ashley sighed and sat in the shotgun seat, leaving only the middle seat between us for Annabeth. This was going to be fun...

"Is there any way I can switch with one of you in the back seat?" She asked, poking her head inside.

They were all silent for a few moments, then a smile appeared on Rachel's face, it looked like she was planning something. "I will." She said, starting to unbuckle. Annabeth's face looked like she just drank lake water.

"Um, actually, never mind, I'll try to bear it." She began to get into the front seat next to me. I thought I heard quiet giggles from behind me, but I played them off as if they never happened.

"Ok, now are we all ready?" I asked. Everyone nodded and I started the car as soon as all the windows and doors were closed. "Let's hit the road then." I started to drive. Chiron waved us off until we hit the road. I let the knowledge of my powers I had gained from the hat sit in my head.

Freezing water was easy, will it to freeze and move my arms up. Heating water was easier, will it to heat and drop my arm. Making little moving images in the fire, all I have to do is picture what I wasn't and "project" those pictures into whatever is moving. Healing, have water touching both the victim and the healer at the same time. There was also one power that I didn't even know I had: Finding the Olympian parent of a demigod just through a hand touch.

That's what the fainting and images of Hermes and Athena had been.

The drive was quiet, we were only ten minutes into the trip and still nobody had anything to talk about. The silence was beginning to become unbearable so I turned the radio on and opened the windows a crack.

"Too quiet for you?" Thalia asked. I didn't pay her any attention. I focused on the road in front of me. "You know, there's an easy way to beat that." I knew what she was talking about and I turned and was about to stop her, but I was too late.

"300 bottles of nectar on the wall, 300 bottles of nectar. Take one down pass it around, 299 bottles of nectar on the wall!" Soon, everybody but me was singing the song, I closed the windows and put in my headphones for my IPOD, only when I hit the play button did I realize that my IPOD was dead. I groaned and tried to drown out the loud voices of my quest group. This was going to be a long trip.


	13. Chapter 12

**HEY! I'm back in the game! I'm sorry I've been slacking. You know life. Ups and downs, and chores and homework. Well, now that I've gotten to the actual questing part, I'm going to move much smoother and much more quicker, but I'm going to need your help. Review giving me ideas on what could happen, and in this chapter, I'm using a few powers that I got in reviews! Enjoy! I do not own PJATO. OH! And I want to personally thank asdfjkl for being my most persistent reviewer. You've stuck with the story through the beginning! You've also helped me with so much of my ideas, I'm definitely using your ideas in one of the chapters to come. And thank you to everyone else who reviewed. You're all awesome!**

"22 bottles of nectar on the wall, 22 bottles of nectar. Take one down, pass it around 21 bottles of nectar on the wall."

They had been singing this for 4 and a half hours straight and I was gripping the steering wheel so tight now that my knuckles were turning white. If I gripped any tighter, my hands might be permanently stuck this way. I had long ago given up telling them to stop singing. They refused and even made me turn off the radio so that they could hear themselves better. Why they liked singing the annoying children's song I'll never know.

It was a little after noon, so I decided to stop for lunch. Maybe getting some food in their mouths would shut them up. We were coming up to the state line between New York and Pennsylvania. There was a sandwich shop about a mile away. I sped up and pulled into the parking lot. It was a rundown place with peeling paint trash everywhere. Inside wasn't any better, the tables were all sticky and there were flies everywhere. The only thing good about this place was that the food was cheap.

"Ok, bathroom break and lunch break. If I hear anyone else say 'bottle of nectar', I'm tying you to the roof of the vehicle." We all filed into the place and sat at a table while I went up and ordered the cheapest edible sandwiches there were.

After we received our food, the table remained quiet except for soda slurping and lip smacking. A waitress came up and asked for the money and I pulled out a wad of the green cash. I handed her a twenty and we finished our meals and left.

Back in the truck, we were all quiet once again, but at least it wasn't the annoying, off-key, singing that had made me almost go mad.

"So, what hidden talents was Chiron talking about when he gave you the hat?" Annabeth asked from her spot next to me.

I quickly came up with an answer. "I don't know, their hidden." I said. It wasn't a full lie, it was just not fully the truth either. I seemed to be getting good at that. Annabeth crossed her arms stubbornly when I said nothing else. I turned the radio back on and enjoyed the guitar and drum solo's that came into play. Although, it wasn't the kind of music I liked, I began to wish that my IPOD was charged again.

"Hey Percy, do you think that instead of singing, we can play a game?" Thalia asked.

I eyed her warily. "What kind of game?" I asked. I hoped it wasn't the kind that involved annoying words or voices.

"Just a regular old car game. People have been playing it in America for years." She said as if I knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Um, ok. I guess you can play it, whatever it is." I went back to paying attention to the road.

"Cool." She replied, and then punched me hard in the arm. Hard enough for me to feel it. "Red one!"

"Ouch!" I said, when I turned to glare at her in the mirror, I saw a red volts wagon behind the truck.

"You said we could play, so we're playing it." For the next 3 hours, everyone was in a vicious competition of Slug Bug. I punched people back, carefully, because whenever somebody punched me, they punched really hard. I was beginning to wonder why everybody hated me all of a sudden. I wasn't having fun, although everybody else seemed to be. Though thanks to my invincibility, I didn't feel very much pain, only a little stinging. But not for long.

"Gray one!" Annabeth yelled and turned to punch me. I was getting tired of her always going after me, so I tried to dodge. Her fist missed my arm an unfortunately hit me right in the face. She had been trying to hit me really, really hard, because my head flew to the left and hit the side of the car, probably leaving a bruise on both sides of my face instead of just on the right side. I looked in the rear view mirror to make sure I wasn't bleeding. I wasn't but I had a black eye and a bruise on the skin over my cheek bone. Wasn't it almost impossible to hurt me? I was still invincible wasn't I? It wasn't supposed to wear off. Did she mean to hit me that hard?

I looked at the place where my face had connected with the truck's interior metal. There was a small dent. Yes, I think she wanted me to actually feel the pain I wouldn't have felt before.

Everybody in the truck gasped when they saw my face, but Annabeth had already been apologizing. "Percy! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you in the face! I didn't mean to hit you that hard either!" Annabeth said over and over again. But I didn't listen. I had had enough of all of this, and it had only been 9 hours since we left. 5:00 p.m. and I was already bruised! I pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the car. We were in the upper left corner of Pennsylvania now, and at the moment, right next to Lake Erie.

"What are you doing?" Annabeth asked, but I was too furious to answer her. I grabbed the keys and got out of the truck. Annabeth and Nico got out too. "Percy! Where are you going? We have a quest to go on! I said I was sorry!" She tried to reason.

She said she was sorry? What about me? I turned to her. "I said I was sorry too, didn't I?" I snapped. She knew what I was talking about and looked hurt. It ripped my heart out to see her like that, but I now had a black eye and a huge bruise on my face. My anger needed to simmer down or I could end up in a fit. My anger management hadn't gotten any better over the years.

"Percy, we have a quest to go on. We need to get to California." She said again. I looked at her face, and then everybody else's still shocked faces. They hadn't spoken a word. I wondered what was going through their minds.

I tossed the car keys to her angrily and she fumbled to catch them, a little surprised. "Then go on, I'm not stopping you. I'll find my own way to California." I didn't get to look at her expression because I continued to walk towards the lake that was right in front of me. At the moment, Lake Erie didn't seem so eerie, it seemed like a good place to burn off some anger: Water, water, and more water. My kind of place.

"Percy!" Nico yelled. "Dude, come on! It was an accident." He looked as mad as I was at Annabeth. He knew how I felt, but because he was also a son of one of the Big Three and his temper was as hard to control as mine.

"Yeah. I know." I replied without even turning around. The last thing I heard before my head went under the surface of the lake was protesting of the people I called friends that were standing behind me.

**I know, kind of depressing, but I liked it. It will get better, Percy will join the group again next chapter so don't worry. But tension will still be a little high. Review!**


	14. Chapter 13

**Hey! I'm trying to make up for not updating like I did for the first few chapters. I really hope that you like this chapter and I'm going to use two ideas given to me in this. Really hope you like it! Review! I do not own PJATO series.**

I walked all the way down to the bottom of the lake and sat there just watching the fish and other little lake animals swim by. The anger I had was starting to wear off and I began to feel much better. Then I began to berate myself for leaving my group up there. We had a quest to go on, but I couldn't go face them now. They would ask too many questions and I'd probably be hated even more.

There was only one thing that I could do at the moment that might make me feel any better. I made a little bubble around me and pulled a golden drachma from my pocket. The gold glinted in the dim afternoon light that was shining from the sky. I made a mist and threw it in.

"Sally Blofis, New York." I said. An image of my mother and step dad appeared. They were in the kitchen eating dinner. The thought of food made my stomach rumble, but I couldn't do anything about that now.

"Mom?" I asked. My mom looked up straight at me and her happy, content face changed to horror. My dad looked up at her.

"What is it Sally?" He turned to look where she was looking and saw me too. His eyes widened a little bit. Did my face really look that bad?

My mom got up and ran over to the Iris message, trying to get a closer look at me. Paul followed, but at a slower pace. I guess he was new to actually seeing things like an Iris message and his son underwater.

"Percy, what happened?" She asked worriedly. "Where are you? Do you need help?"

"No mom, I'm fine. I'm at the bottom of Lake Erie. In Pennsylvania. I don't need any help."

"Sweetie, are you sure? We can come help you?" Paul was inspecting the Iris message, mumbling to himself about the dimensions and the capacity. He ducked down a little bit and looked up into the message, probably trying to see how deep I was under that water.

"No mom, it's fine." Paul began to stick his hand out to touch the message when my mom smacked his hand away.

"Don't touch it. You'll ruin the connection." She turned back to me. "Percy, what happened? Why do you have a black eye and bruises?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me." I said with a embarrassed smile.

"Tell me anyways. You didn't run into a pole really hard did you?" She asked.

"No mom, I'm not that stupid." I took a deep breath. "We we're playing slug bug…"

My mom groaned. "Who did it? And why did they hit you so hard?"

"Annabeth, and she wanted me to actually feel the pain so she tried to hit me hard. I tried to dodge, but she ended up getting me in the face instead giving me a black eye."

"How did you end up getting the other bruise?"

"Let's just say that there's a dent in one of the camp trucks." I smiled sheepishly. She sighed.

"Same way?" I nodded and she rolled her eyes. "Percy, what am I going to do with you?"

"I didn't want to play in the first place. I just wanted to drive in a nice peaceful silence. It was all Thalia's idea."

"Well, you do know that you heal with water right? Why don't you just fix your face and get on with the quest?"

"Wait, how did you know about the quest?"

"Your father informed me. He sent a letter saying that you were the only one who could lead this quest. He also informed me of your newest gifts." She made air quotations around 'newest gifts'.

"So you know?" I asked.

"Everything. Don't worry hon, everything will be fine. You're probably the most powerful hero alive. Forgive your friends and hone your powers. That's all you need to work at until the time comes to battle evil. And no matter what happens, I love you."

"I love you too mom." I was about to swipe across the message to end it when Paul quickly threw up his hands.

"Wait! Can you heal yourself so I can see? I want to actually see something happen while the mist is gone."

"You see the Iris message don't you?" I asked with a sarcastic grin.

He smiled. "But I wasn't to see something only my son can do."

I nodded with a small smile. I reached up and touched the edge of the bubble. Water slowly strung down my arm and then crawled up my neck, then across my face. I could feel the broken blood vessels that were in my face mending underneath the skin. Once I felt the power leave me, I opened my eyes. Paul was smiling like a goof. My mom was nodding happily.

"Much better. Now go. There's a quest that you're needed on." Then she swiped through the message, leaving me in a much darker air bubble. I had been talking for a good 20 minutes and the sun was already almost down.

I decided to wait until the sun was completely down before going up, so I decided to practice on my new powers. I uncapped Riptide and Cyclone formed back into the celestial bronze helmet. The information flowed into my head and I practiced the techniques.

I made a small earthquake that was only as big as the bubble, then I made one as big as the lake. I froze the bubble and then melted it. I practiced for what seemed like hours before I finally decided to go back up. It was pitch black under the water, but I could still see like it was clear as day. Of course I could always do that.

I wanted to see if they had left me, but I didn't know how to do that without swimming up to the top. Suddenly, a new technique entered my mind and I tried it. One moment I was standing under the water the next, I was on dry land. The GMC was still there, but there were no lights on. The helmet informed me that my body was still under the water. I must be seeing this with a new power. I willed for myself to go back to my body, and I did. I smiled a big smile at my newest power. It would come in handy.

I capped Riptide and started swimming up to the surface of the lake. Then I willed the water to push me to the sandy bank. I took a step up and began walking. I found Nico staring off into space. "What are you all still doing here?" I asked.

He stood and sighed in relief. "Geez Percy, could you stay underwater any longer?" He joked. "At least your face is pretty again."

"Actually, I could probably live under there my whole life if I wanted to."

He sighed in exasperation. "Never mind. I'm tired, let's get back to the motel."

"You went there before?" I asked.

"Yes, but Annabeth stayed just in case you came back up. She really is sorry Percy. She was crying when you didn't come up after a good thirty minutes. What were you doing down there anyways?"

"I wanted to talk to my mom, and I practiced my powers." I smiled. "I discovered a new one."

"And that would be?"

"I had a very out of body experience."

"I'm not going to ask what you mean. Just nod and say I understand." He began walking to the truck.

I opened the driver door and found Annabeth asleep in the passenger's seat.

"What is she still doing here?" I asked curiously.

"She refused to leave until you came up."

"Well, I'm up. Let's go."

I drove the short 3 mile drive to the motel and parked in the parking lot. It was a decent motel, with flower gardens everywhere. It looked like Demeter and Persephone had some fun with this little place.

"How are we going to get Annabeth up to her room?" Nico asked. I answered by picking her up and carrying her into the motel front door. Nico locked the truck and followed. He opened Annabeth's door where and I entered the room. Rachel was sleeping on the couch and Thalia was sleeping on the one bed.

"Where's Ashley?" I asked.

"She wanted to save Annabeth a spot so she's sleeping on the couch in our room." Nico whispered.

I nodded and laid Annabeth next to Thalia. I put the blanket over her and followed Nico to our room, which was right next door.

"So we're sharing the bed?" Nico asked. It did seem a little awkward.

"Actually." I reasoned with myself. "I'll go sleep in the bathtub."


	15. Chapter 14

**Hello again. I was really proud of the last chapter, but you're right. It did seem a little short. I'm going to try to make them longer so you can enjoy it more. Thank you to all who voted *Cyber hi-five*. You. ****Spectondersome****. In case you don't know what that word is, it's a mix of Spectacular, wonderful, and awesome. ^ I made it up. But anyways. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Remember, I don't own the series, just ^ the word up there…\/ I think I do anyways. I just came up with it off the top of my head.  
/\ **

I woke up the next morning to an aching back. The only part of me that still got hurt from these kinds of things. I had actually slept in the bathtub, and it wasn't very much fun. Next time, I get the bed. Nico could go sleep in the closet.

I pulled myself out of the tub and stood to wash my face. As soon as the water touched my skin, the aches and pains of sleeping in the tub went away. I let the water run off my skin and then I went out the main room.

I thought that I had been the first awake, but I was mistaken. Nico was watching TV, and the connector door was open and the only one in there was Annabeth, still dozing on the bed.

"Where'd the girls go?" I whispered.

"Down to get breakfast. They're going to bring some up for us, so I'm going to take a quick shower." He stood and headed for the door, but turned around at the last second. "You don't need to considering you slept in the bathtub."

"Ha, ha." I laughed humorlessly and then started getting my stuff together. It looked like Nico had gone through it. I assumed that I was right since my IPOD was missing. It's a good thing it was dead or I wouldn't get it back for the entire trip. I searched for it everywhere, under the bed, between the cushions, in the closet, pockets. I finally found it underneath Nico's pillow.

I was putting it back in my bag when I heard a mumbling from the other room. The only one in there was Annabeth. Was she hurt? Was she in trouble? I grabbed Riptide and tugged on Cyclone quickly and went to the other room. Annabeth was half-on, half-off the bed struggling against something that wasn't there. She was dream-screaming into a pillow and had a red face, like she was crying.

I ran over to her to see if she was alright. I had promised my dad to stay close to her, although I didn't know what for, but a promise to a god was something you had to keep. The first thing I made sure of was that she was breathing and not choking on something. She was breathing alright, breathing out high pitched yelling which she somehow managed to aim right for my eardrums, even though she was unconscious.

"No! I said I was sorry!" She dream yelled. "Please don't do this! I forgive you! Please?" I wasn't sure what she was yelling about, but I knew that I had to wake her. "What are you doing back!" She yelled. I grabbed her arm to start shaking her, but she slipped her hand out and rammed it against the bed board. I expected her to wake up screaming in pain, but she was stuck in her nightmare. "NO! You will never win! We will defeat your minions no matter how powerful they are!" And it as then that I knew I had to wake her up. She was having a similar dream to the one I had a few days ago; and knowing how that dream went, I knew that it was going to take a good amount of effort to wake her.

"Annabeth!" I shook her hard. She didn't wake up.

"No! Please!" She yelled. Her arms flew to cover her eyes and a throat ripping sobbing came from her throat. Tears fell from her eyes.

"Annabeth, please wake up!" I decided to try lightly slapping her face. As my hand barely connected with her cheek, an image came into my mind. It took me a moment to realize that I was in her dream.

She was in the same place I had been in my dream, talking to Grover and me. Like before, Grover was taken down by the vine, then it was dream me started to speak.

"It was his choice Annabeth."

"Yes, but why did he choose that?" She looked like she was close to tears. I wanted this dream to end. Kronos was going too far.

"Because you didn't forgive."

"Forgive what?" She asked, taking a step toward dream me.

"Me. I tried to tell you. I agree it was partially my fault, but friends forgive friends." He said, I saw the vine wrap around dream me's ankle. She saw it too, and grabbed his arms before he was pulled. I didn't want her to feel the pain I had felt when this happened. I began to run, and I mean RUN. I was breathing hard, trying to get there before dream me disappeared down to Tartarus.

"Let go Annabeth." He said.

"No Percy! You're my friend, and always will be!"

"Let go." He yelled. Annabeth didn't loosen her hold, but dream me tugged and he began to fall. She started to bawl.

"He's not real Annabeth!" I yelled. It seemed like a really quiet voice, but she still turned to see who had spoken. Her eyes widened and she looked from me to the place where dream me had just fallen. "He's not real! I'm the real one! You have to wake up." I said finally reaching her. She was frozen to her spot and everything started to shake. I grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. "Annabeth. Wake up, none of this is real. Don't worry about it. I would never leave you behind like that. You're my friend, now please wake up." She wrapped her arms around my neck and cried into my shirt. I hugged her back and rubbed comforting circles into her arm.

A high pitched whistling filled my ears and then I was back in the motel room, with Annabeth laying in her bed still. I was in the same position I had been in while inside her dream. I sat on the side of the bed and lightly shook her. Her eyes opened and she gasped for air. Her eyes settled on me and relief washed over her face.

"You're ok." She said.

"Yeah." I said. "Kronos getting to your dreams too, huh?" I asked. She nodded and sat up. Then she looked at me. That was a really bad dream." She said. I guess she didn't know that it was really me that was inside her dream.

"Yeah?" I asked, standing up to go get changed.

"But it ended ok." She said smiling.

I nodded. "Good." Before I walked back into my room. She hadn't noticed that the right shoulder of my nightshirt was wet.

Nico was drying his hair in our room. "What happened in there?" He asked.

"Nothing." I replied. "Just another power."

"Another one?" He asked going over to the bed and sticking his hand underneath the pillow. His face became unbelieving.

"What's up Nico? Lost something?"

He shook his head. "No, I'll find it. It's not that important anyways."

I had to bite back my contradiction. I grabbed my bags and began to walk to the door. "I'm going to put my stuff in the truck real fast."

"Ok."

"Oh, and Nico?"I stopped and faced him with a smile. He looked back questioningly at me. "Next time, ask before you borrow my IPOD."

We had eaten breakfast and gotten in the car before 7:30, and it had almost been 8 hours. We stopped once for lunch and another time for a break, but other than that, we hadn't gotten out of the truck. We were halfway through Ohio and maybe a goof hour away from the nearest decent motel.

Nobody talked much, mostly because they didn't want a repeat of yesterday, but I was still really bored, we needed something to do. A game that wasn't as painful or annoying.

"Do you guys want to play a less destructive game?" I asked. They all shrugged, but there were a few yes's. "Ok, let's play I spy."

They nodded in approval. "I'll go first." Nico said looking out the window. After a second, he turned back to us. I spy with my little eye something that has eyes."

We all looked around. "Um, that bird?" Thalia asked.

"No."

Rachel pointed to me. "Percy?" She asked.

"No."

"Me?" Ashley asked.

"NO! Not eyes, I's. As in the letter."

"OH." We all said at the same time.

"Then, how about that tree over there?" I said pointing to a tree on the edge of the small forest that had a carving saying I+M.

"First of all, no, and second off, how did you even see that?" I looked behind them, they all had incredulous looks on their faces.

"You guys didn't see it?" I asked.

"No."

"OH, well, maybe I saw something else." Another power! Woo. Hoo. *sarcastic*

"Can you give us another hint?" Rachel asked.

"Sorry, we already passed it. But I can come up with another one."

"Sure. Go ahead." I said.

"I spy with my little eye, something that is…" That's pretty much how the rest of the afternoon went. I discovered two new powers without even trying, but the rest of the day could be like any other road trip. I pulled into a motel parking lot. It was branched off the same motel as the last one. Lots of flowers out front and cheap rooms. I parked and we all walked in, I booked two rooms and we headed upstairs. The girls got a room across from me and Nico and the up-side was that there were two beds.

"Yes!" I said as I fell onto the bed and let the cushion of the mattress comfort my poor back. "I was about to make you sleep in the closet." I said, not even bothering to look up.

Nico laughed. "Sure, and then you would be sorry tomorrow with my grouchiness."

"You're right, I don't think anybody want to face grumpy you. I have before, never want to face that again."

There was a soft knock at the door. I reluctantly got up and answered it. Ashley stood on the other side. "Percy, Annabeth's freaking out."

"Why?" I asked.

"She can't find her spear." I felt a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I nodded, Annabeth's spear was almost as important as her life. It's saved her so many times before. "I'll help her find it in the morning, but at the moment, she needs to sleep. I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen tomorrow."

**What do you think? Was it too short? Not enough stuff in the chapter. Review please!**

**.BEASTXx**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15! I can't believe how much I wrote in such a short time and with everything that's been going on. I have 2finally ended sum school. I will be able to put more focus into this. Ok, I have some correcting to do. A few chapters ago, I said Chiron and Mr. D were playing piccolo, it should be pinochle. Thank you for pointing that out. I also want to thank everybody so much. Last time, I went to bed not feeling so good about the chapter, but the next morning, when I woke up I had 15 reviews! I almost started jumping up and down out of joy. But anyways, here's the chapter. I don't own the series**

The next morning, we searched for Annabeth's knife in every crevice, every bag, and even retraced our steps. It was nowhere to be found. I remembered that she put it next to her bedside every night before falling asleep. Maybe she left it in the motel in Pennsylvania. I tried telling her the idea, but she refused to accept it and kept looking.

It was still early morning and

I was carrying the bags out to the truck when a bright yellow Ferrari came out of nowhere and almost hit me. I almost dove for it, but it stopped inches away from me and in the driver's seat was the all too familiar Apollo.

"What up Percy?" He asked, opening the door and getting out. He was decked out in what looked like expensive clothing.

"Apollo." I replied, showing a sign of respect. He came up to me and leaned against the hood of his car. At first he didn't do anything but look at me, but then he lifted his fingers and snapped. The suitcase and bags I still had in my hands lifted into the air and flew into the back of the truck.

"So Percy." He said, "I have a message for you from your father, and I put into a series of three Haikus to make it more pleasant."

I inwardly groaned. He cleared his throat and started speaking.

"A missing weapon,  
The beginning of bad luck.  
Stay close to your friends."

"Ok, so now we have bad luck, and he wants me to stay near my friends?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Now the next one…

Keep all your friends close,  
Keep the wisest one closer,  
She is a target."

Shivers made their way down my spine and to the spot on my back. Annabeth was a target. Now I knew why my father wanted me to keep her close.

"And the last one.

Power will increase,  
Enemies will find weakness,  
Harness your secrets."

Watched as he came out of his 'poem reading mode' and looked at me. "Basically, he wants you to stop fighting with the daughter of Athena, stay as close as you can to her and work on your powers every chance you get."

"Ok, I can do that." I said. "But what does he mean by she's a target?"

Apollo raised an eyebrow. "I think you know exactly what it means."

He was right. Bad things were going to happen to my stubborn best friend. I had known that since last night.

"And about enemies finding my weakness?"

"That depends on what weaknesses you have."

I had several weaknesses, but the main one was my Achilles heel. My middle back. Before I could say anything else, he got in his car and drove away.

"Percy?" I turned around and saw Ashley standing by the door. "Come on. Why are you just standing out there in the middle of the parking lot. There are a few more bags that need to be taken in."

I started to walk over. "Geez. You're almost as bossy as Annabeth." I joked. "But if I can put up with her, then I can put up with you."

She smiled as my joke and pulled out the tooth spear I had given her. "Can you show me how to clean this? It's getting dusty with all, the traveling we've been doing."

"Oh, trust me. You haven't seen traveling until you go across the country on foot."

We walked into the room where Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico were sitting on the beds watching the news. There were the regular car crashes, and robberies, but there were also some extra stuff. The namean lion was running through the streets of Seattle, there were hell hounds everywhere throughout the country. Everything was just chaos.

Trying to keep my voice calm, I turned off the TV while saying. "We need to get back on the road pronto."

We all took our regular seats and I began to drive.

"Percy, do you think we'll save everything in time?"

"We better, or this will be a really bad end to everything."

Turns out that when I thought something was going to happen that day, I was wrong. For the rest of that day and the next, all we did was drive, eat and sleep. There were no chance encounters with monsters or any other gods. It was all a whole lot of road.

Annabeth and I were still kind of mad at each other, but she didn't really yell or glare at me. It was more of an awkward silence. Thalia was starting to treat me like a friend again, Nico was starting to mellow down a bit and acted as his quiet mysterious self again, but at least that was normal. Rachel hadn't said much, she only answered people and laughed at the occasional joke. Ashley was everybody's friend. She talked with everybody, laughed at everybody's jokes and never seemed to get really mad.

It was almost midday, 5 days since leaving camp half-blood. I hadn't gained ant new powers since the dream Annabeth had. We had just entered Illinois when the first sign of our bad luck started.

"So, I think we should get to know each other's places in this quest." Thalia said. "We've been traveling for 5 days and I'm pretty sure Rachel doesn't even know who my Olympian parent is."

Rachel raised her finger. "Zeus." Thalia waved her off.

"Ok, SO I want to know more about the people who are with us, I want to be able to trust them, although I already trust Annabeth, and I've already been on a mission with you Percy."

"Alright, that doesn't seem like a bad idea."Annabeth said. I didn't say anything because I already knew all of them and them, and they already knew me.

I was secretly focusing my powers. There was a water bottle in the cup holder next to me that I had been freezing and heating. At the moment, I was watching the road with my new super vision. The night before, Cyclone had told me the workings of my super vision. The water saturated in the air around me intensified my sight and basically let see anything I wanted as long as it was close.

A speck of dust about 10 yards in front of us, I saw a bird that was about half a mile into the woods to our right, but what I saw next gave me a jolt of adrenaline and fear.

There was nobody else on the road thank goodness, but I pulled to the side of the road and stomped on the brakes. The truck screeched to a halt, throwing everybody but me forward. I quickly got out and uncapped Riptide, which formed Cyclone into the helmet. I pressed the button on my watch and the shield popped out.

Everybody else got out and prepared for whatever was coming.

"What is it?" Nico asked, he knew that I knew what was coming at us.

"A Hydra." I whispered underneath my breath, barely audible even for my own ears.

Just as I said that, one of the heads knocked over a few trees, making room for its huge body to fit through. All the head's were facing Annabeth, who was standing the furthest away from me on the group. She was the target.

"Annabeth! Come here!" I managed to yell before the charged. It was going for her. She would have stayed there to fight that thing head on, but there were a few things wrong with that. She didn't have a spear, she was standing closest to the thing, and there was nothing to block her. So she did a very un-Annabeth thing, she turned and ran the opposite direction.

"Annabeth! To me, not that way!" I said, she just kept running.

"Percy! Focus on the Hydra!" Thalia yelled. I turned to see the 7 headed monster start to run to catch up to Annabeth.

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled. I ran after it and jumped onto its tail, then I started to climb to his chest. I was surprised that he didn't try to get me off, he just kept going for Annabeth.

"Stay away from my friend you big headed… s lizard!" I forced Riptide into the monster's body and he disintegrated into yellow dust. 'That was almost easier to beat than the hell hound.' I thought to myself to make sure Annabeth was ok. She was on the ground shaking, breathing hard, and looking at everything as if it were going to try to kill her.

"Are you ok?"

**I know, it took a long time to update. Please forgive. Oh, and I need more ideas!**


	17. Chapter 16

**HAPPY 4****th**** OF JULY! =-X I'm here again! Some of you have been suggesting that I need to work on my spelling and I want to thank you for pointing that out. I've just been doing these chapters in such a hurry I don't have time to check them I'll check this and the next though. I really hope you like this chapter. I'm going to try to put more action into the story, but there might be a few boring fillers to just make the story longer and more understandable. OK, there's a poll at the top of my profile, there are two new story ideas for PJATO, I want to know which one I should do next. Look and Vote! Go now! Don't wait! You can come back to this afterwards!... OK, you done? Good. I hope you enjoy the chapter! I don't own the series.**

"Annabeth, are you ok?" I asked again when she didn't answer. She looked up with her wide gray eyes.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. Just a little shaken up."

"Good."I offered her a hand and she took it. She was shaking so much, that I had to pull her up myself.

"Let's get going. I want to get as far away from this place as possible." She then started to walk as fast as she could to the truck. I followed behind and met up with Nico and Rachel who were talking to each other. Once I came into whispering distance, Nico began asking questions.

"What was that all about? Why did it go after only her? How did you kill it so quickly?"

All I did was shrug and get into the truck. Everybody else followed.

A few hours into the drive, Annabeth finally seemed to snap out of her shock and turned to me. "Percy, can we go to Chicago?" She asked quietly.

"We were going to go through it anyways, why?"

"I want to see the Sears Tower. They have ledges at the top that I want to look out of."

I thought for a few moments. Did we really have time to stop and sightsee? I turned to look at her wide, begging gray eyes. "Fine, but only for a few minutes." I said. She smiled and clapped, but stopped when I looked at her, and went back into the uncomfortable silence.

The Sears Tower, now called Willis Tower, stood over 1,400 feet tall and was made mostly out of glass. There were complete glass balconies 1,353 feet high, where people could go out and look down. The second I parked, Annabeth and Ashley started sprinting for the door. Thalia had seemed to get over her fear of heights as well, and followed after quickly. That left me, Nico and Rachel at the bottom. I could do nothing but stare.

"Aren't you coming Percy? Nico?" Rachel asked.

"Um… I-I think I'll pass. I'll wait down here." Nico agreed with me with a nod. She smiled and went to go get in line.

I felt an urge to go follow them, I felt like they were in danger, but I couldn't do anything about it. I knew that if I went up there, Zeus would do something to me. He always did, even if he was in a good mood.

"You thinking the same thing?" I asked Nico.

"Zeus would scorch my but if I went up there." He replied. I laughed uncomfortably.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked me. I debated on whether to tell him about Apollo's warning about me staying close to my friends. "Never mind, but if you're feeling anxious about them, why don't you just use your apparent new power to keep them under tabs."

"How did you know about that?" I asked.

"You somehow just saw the Hydra coming."

I sighed and focused on the place where everybody should be at the moment. At first, I saw nothing but small little water droplets in the air, then everything started to move and I could see Rachel. She was still in line with Thalia and Ashley, Annabeth had managed to get further in line and was entering the elevator, I let my sight travel with her. There were at least 15 other people in the large elevator with her, but she didn't seem uncomfortable, she seemed like she was so excited, she was about to jump out of her socks.

The doors finally opened and she forced her way through to the front. After running through several hallways, she came to a sliding glass door. She forced the door open and came through. She was the first to stand on it. She looked at everything with hungry eyes, probably coming up with things that would make the building better.

"What's that?" Nico asked, I turned to see what he was looking at and found him staring at a giant creature that was climbing the side of the building. Like I had expected, heading straight for Annabeth.

"It's a chimera!" I yelled. Why did I always have to see one of these things while visiting national monuments? "We need to let Annabeth know!" I said quickly.

"Too late." I looked again to see her screaming. She was banging on the glass doors that were now shut and locked. The Chimera, climbed up one last ledge and it broke the glass that was holding her up. She started to fall.

"No!" I yelled. I did what my instincts told me to do. I ran to catch her, only to notice that the Chicago River was right beneath her, this was almost a complete repeat of my first quest. Only Annabeth was the one facing most of the terror now.

She was screaming her head off as she fell. She was about to hit the water, but I couldn't let that happen, that could still kill her, so I reached the water up and grabbed her out of the air and carried her to me. She was breathing so hard that she just fainted. I reached out and caught her before she hit the ground.

She was acting so unlike herself, but I guessed it was probably from losing her sword. I would have to give her a weapon when she woke. I took some of the river water and made a permafrost sword, it would have to work. I stuck it to my belt for the time being.

I carried her to the truck and put her in the seat. She was out cold. There was a growling sound, but when I turned around, the Chimera was nowhere to be found. 'Until next time.' I thought.

"Percy! What happened?" Rachel asked as she to the car.

"A chimera attacked Annabeth." I replied.

She started to look around. "Where's Nico? He was with you wasn't he?"

I looked around, using my vision power. My cousin was nowhere to be found. "DI Immortales!" I cursed to myself. "We need to find him."

Thalia and Ashley came and began to help looking a few minutes later. We searched for an hour and a few minutes before I heard Rachel yell "Found something!" I went to go look. There was a giant black mark on the ground behind a large potted plant.

"Do you think it could have anything to do with him?" Ashley asked.

I stared at the mark, I had seen something like it before. Then it came to me. It was a shadow. The kind of thing that Hades did with his helmet.

"Hades." I greeted. The others took a step back, obviously trying to get as far away from the mark as possible. I would have thought that they would turn around and run back to 'check on Annabeth'. But the god of the underworld molded right in front of our eyes, forcing them to stay.

"Perseus."

"Where's Nico?" I asked.

"Taken, and you're the one who's going to get him back."

"You mean all of us?" I asked.

"No, just you and the one you must protect."

"What about my other friends?"

"They will stay in the underworld with me." He replied.

I didn't say anything, just glared.

"That's where you're going, isn't it? You want to see someone of Isle Blest."

I turned to my friends. "Are you ok with going to the underworld?" I asked.

"It's not like we have a choice, just promise you'll get this over with quickly." Thalia said.

I turned back to Hades. "Very well, we'll get Nico, it's not like we weren't going to do it anyways."

"My son is being taken to Seattle Washington. I don't like you nephew, but you are the only one I can think of who can take care of this for me."

"I'll get him back." I promised.

"Good then. You have 10 days." And before I could make any bargain for my friends staying with me, or for any more time everybody around me disappeared; leaving me standing in the garden alone.

I went and got into the driver's seat after laying Annabeth in a more comfortable position. She was now in the seat behind me laying fully spread out. Hopefully, she would wake up soon so I didn't have to worry about her or carry her around anymore.

As I drove, I slipped into my thoughts. This quest was going like the other ones hadn't. It seemed like there were more things were happening in my favor. But those things made it seem like everything was aimed at me when they were all actually aimed at Annabeth. I felt like I wanted all the bad things to happen to me, but I didn't know why.

I looked back at Annabeth and felt more protective, but, not so protective, proud, but not so proud. What was this feeling?

**Hey! Still need ideas here! I've been getting a lot of reviews! But I need more!**

**.BEASTXx**


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17! Yaaaaaaaaaay! Excitement! I know it says chapter 18, but that's because of the author's note. Don't forget to go to my profile and look at the poll. I'm going to keep it up for a while. I still need ideas! No matter how small or crazy they sound. I still need them! And I want everybody to know that no matter how old the story may get, I still want reviews! **

It had been a full day since Hade's sent me on the side-quest. Annabeth had yet to wake, it seemed like she was spending the whole quest unconscious. I had been speeding the entire way, and we were now halfway across the country. I would have thought that we would have had to stop to get gas or to take breaks, but having only me and Annabeth in the car was giving me more time to drive and less stops. The gas meter never seemed to run out and I was fine with going a long way without getting bored or tired.

We were now in Nebraska, and it was midday. I was starting to get sore from sitting for so long, but I had to keep going so that I could rescue Nico, get us down to the underworld where we would get the rest of our friends, and hurry onto the next part of the quest so we could save the Mist.

"Percy?" I heard from behind me. I looked to see Annabeth sitting up looking around confusedly, then she turned to me. "Where's everybody else?"

I sighed and pulled over to a 7-11. When she came to sit up in the passenger seat, I started to explain everything. I was glad that she was finally awake, now I wouldn't feel so alone.

"So, we have to go find Nico, go to the underworld, prove that he's fine and then we continue with everything?" She asked.

"Exactly." I replied. Then she got out of the truck. "Where are you going?" I asked.

"To get something to eat, I've been passed out for a full day." She replied. Of course she would be starving, I was hungry too. I took the keys and got out as well and we bought a few snacks foods from inside before hitting the road again.

She didn't say anything else or glare at me for the next few hours making me wonder if she was still mad at me. The question was burning on my tongue, but I had to keep myself from asking just in case I reminded her of everything.

At around 4 p.m., she finally decided to speak, and it wasn't yelling or insults. It was far from it, the complete opposite.

"Percy?" She had asked. I turned down the music to listen. "I'm sorry." I could feel my eyes widen and faced her. _She_ was apologizing to_ me_?

"You are? For what?" I asked. I only wanted her to forgive me. It was my fault that I didn't tell her Rachel was coming in time.

"For being so mad. It's just… that mortal, I really don't like her." She scrunched up her nose, making me want to laugh at her funny face. But I contained ,myself.

"Why don't you like her?" I asked curiously. She always refused to tell me. I didn't know why I was asking her this time.

Like I had expected, she ignored my question and continued apologizing. "I should have forgiven you, you tried to tell me, but then you were pulled away and by then it was too late. _She_ had showed up."

I sighed again. "Actually, it was still my fault, I knew that Rachel would have something to do with this quest for a few weeks now and I chose until the very last moment to tell you. I was afraid that you would get mad at me, but it turns out you did anyways so, that didn't really work out did it?" I asked.

Annabeth smiled a small smile. "Well, you know how stubborn I can be. But it was still really hard to stay mad at you. Not to mention how many times you've rescued me in the past week." She shook her head. "Do you know why everything seems to be going after me?" Like she was doing to me and my question about Rachel, I ignored her and started on something else.

"Maybe you just have really bad luck."

"Well, at the moment I do. I'm attacked by almost every monster, but probably because I lost my sword!" She crossed her arms.

That reminded me of something. "Oh yeah! That reminds me." I said, reaching behind my seat and pulling out the permafrost sword I had made her. "This is for you, so you don't have to worry about running and hiding." I said handing her the sharp cold sword. She took it and inspected it closely, a look of wonder glinted in her eyes. "So, do you like it?" I asked.

"Like it? You're asking if I like it? Of course I don't like it! I love it! Thank you so much Percy!" She said hugging me. I couldn't hold my laugh in this time.

"No problem Wise Girl." I replied. Then we went back into the silence, but it was a comfortable silence instead of the awkward one.

Close to midnight, I pulled into a motel lot and rented a room. Since it was only me and Annabeth, we only needed one. We walked upstairs without grabbing our bags and immediately got into our beds and fell asleep. That night was dreamless and peaceful.

The next day was much more eventful. It had started out normally until we entered Wyoming. There were mountains on either side of the highway that were covered in snow. There looked like there was a thick forest that spread basically everywhere. There must be some small towns around here.

"How are we going to find a map that will get us through?" Annabeth asked.

"I think we just need to follow the cars." I replied looking at the map I already had. It only showed the main highways, and I couldn't read what city we were in.

I was about to suggest stopping and asking for directions in the next town, but Annabeth yelled. "WATCH OUT!" Startled, I looked up and found a giant rock being hurled at us. I swerved around it, barely missing it. I sighed in relief, but it was too soon to start breathing easy again. Another rock was coming at us, this time, hitting the side mirror off.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asked. I used my sight to look around, and found a Cyclopes about the size of Polyphemus picking up another rock.

"It's a Cyclopes!" I yelled while swerving out of the way of another rock. The rest of the cars that were on the road before had disappeared, and there was no sign of life except for me and Annabeth… and monster of a stepbrother.

"We need to get out of here!" She yelled.

"How? There are rocks falling everywhere!" Then I noticed that there was a wide river to my left, the only problem: It was around a half a mile away.

I made a U turn and started speeding that way. All the while there, I was making a long-lasting air breathing talent on Annabeth, just in case.

"Where are we going?" She asked. I pointed to the river and she immediately understood.

"Unbuckle." I said while unbuckling myself. We were so close to the river now, I could feel its energy flowing into me. But just as I thought we were about to make it, everything fell apart.

"Percy!" I looked in the only side mirror we had left and noticed that there was the biggest rock I had ever seen airborne coming at us fast. There was only time to do one thing, and I was surprised that my mind had functioned so quickly. I stopped the truck, and pushed Annabeth out as far as I could. Then I ducked back in curled into a ball. _There's no way my invincibility was going to save me this time._ Was my last thought before I heard the crushing of the truck roof.

**I know, it seems like a really bad ending to this chapter, but I promise you're going to love me for it next chapter. I won't take so long writing this one. Sorry about that by the way. I was out on a run. Need Reviews! And look at my poll on my profile. Only 3 people have voted so far.**


	19. Chapter 18

**HI! Sorry about the cliffy! I just wanted to make this more suspenseful. I hope you guys love me this chapter! I'm really trying to make it good and review worthy. Don't forget to go to my poll! Read and review. R&R ( I just learned what that meant) ;) I'm still looking for more ideas. Here's one that a few of you had come up with and has been floating around in my head for a few days. This is going to be a little bit of Annabeth's POV, because what happened to Percy is going to be a mystery for a few more paragraphs. Don't skip because that will ruin everything. Enjoy!**

Annabeth's POV

I rolled to a stop a few yards away from the truck. 'since when did Percy get so strong?' I thought to myself and I looked up at the truck a little disoriented. But there was no mistaking what I saw next. Percy was pulling himself deeper into the truck and disappeared underneath the window, but I knew that he was still inside. The truck was still in motion, but then, so was the boulder.

I watched in horror as the boulder landed on top of the truck, smashing everything that was in it. I didn't even have time to blink. Everything inside my mind, all my natural wisdom, all my instincts, all my memories seemed to leave my head, and all I could think about was the amazing person who had just gave his life to save mine.

"Percy!" I screamed as I ran towards the truck, tears streaming down my face. He couldn't be gone. He had always made it through before. Maybe his invincibility saved him. Maybe the rock had missed him, but as I came closer to the truck, I realized that it wasn't possible. The boulder had completely smashed the GMC into a flat hunk of metal.

"Percy!" I screamed again while trying to push the boulder away, it had to be at least 700 pounds, but I tried anyways. Until the monster who killed everything came stomping down the hill. He was going to pay. He was going to suffer.

I pulled out the sword Percy had made me and faced the monster with hatred in my eyes. "You don't know who you're messing with."

Percy's POV

I didn't feel any pain, which was weird because I would expect a giant boulder smashing you while you were inside a truck would hurt. The only thing I did notice was that there was somebody screaming my name and everything was black. But the blackness started to fade and I could see my surroundings. I was freaking out.

Around me was a mess of mashed metal and smoke. There were wires popping out of the dash board, and there was stuffing coming out of what I was guessing was a seat cushion. My immediate thought was that I was dead. I looked around for what would most likely be a flattened me, but there was nothing. Not even one of my shoes. What exactly was going on? Then I heard outside what sounded like Annabeth whispering something menacingly. Was she alright?

I started to worry and get out there to make sure, and as soon as I thought that, I felt myself moving. But it wasn't a walking or flying sensation. It was more of a sliding or pouring sensation.

I heard the drip, drip of water hitting the floor, but thought nothing of it until I noticed that I was actually feeling the impact of it. I willed to go see what was and felt a rush of my head. The next thing I knew, I was laying in a puddle on the ground outside the truck. No… I _was_ the puddle!

I felt a little jolt of realization run through me and I was suddenly standing there, a little dizzy. I held my head to stop everything from spinning. But what I saw next I could have seen blind. Annabeth was fighting the Cyclopes, but it looked like she was losing. She was covered in scratches and grime, the Cyclopes was swinging his fists at her which knocked her down. She would stay down for a few moments, then get back up and have the cycle happen over again. But she looked angry and determined to fight this thing. She wasn't using any wisdom, it was all pure hatred.

I drew Riptide, and Cyclone formed on my head. I found out that what had just happened was my newest power. I could change my entire body into water. I looked up when I heard a scream. The monster was holding Annabeth upside down by the foot, laughing raucously.

"Annabeth!" I yelled, charging the Cyclopes. As soon as my sword was in reach, I struck, the sword went through his wrist, cutting off his hand.

"Ahhhhhhrrgggg!" He bellowed, dropping Annabeth. I ran and jumped to catch her before she hit the ground. I managed to get to her just in time. I turned to see the Cyclopes form into a ton of yellow dust. This monster was easy too.

"Percy?" I heard. I turned to look at my best friend. Her eyes were shining with new tears and disbelief.

"Are you alright?" I asked her. She smiled the biggest smile ever and enveloped me in a hug that could have cut off a sea monster's head.

"Am I alright? You just got into a killer car crash and you're asking me if I'm alright?" She whispered in my ear happily. Then she moved back. "I've never been more relieved in my life Seaweed brain."

I felt my heart soar at my nick name. She hadn't called me that in weeks, and it made me feel safe and at home again. "Good." I replied.

"How did you survive that?" She asked.

"Um…" I rubbed the back of my neck. Deciding on whether to tell her now or not.

"Please tell me." She begged, giving me a look I couldn't say no to. Darn Annabeth with her big, pretty, curious, gray eyes and soft smile. "Um, my water powers saved me." I said. Hopefully she wouldn't ask which one, because she knew of all my main ones.

She didn't, instead, she hugged tighter. I hugged her back, and then stood us up. I took a look over at the truck, it was a mangled mess of metal. "It looks like we're walking from now on." I said. "And I think we're going to need more supplies." I added since our bags were inside that mangled mess of metal.

"As long as neither of us are dead, I'm fine." She sighed, then completely baffled my brain by kissing me on the cheek. She pulled away from me blushing a slight pinkish tint. "Now let's go. We still have five more states to go through!" She took off down the street quickly, I followed behind still trying to get my brain back. The only thing I could focus on was the tingling heat on my right cheek where her lips had touched me and my absolute elation of knowing that it really just happened.

**Hey! I hope you liked it! Review! And I need ideas for monsters now. I'm using the ones from previous stories and I feel like I'm re-using.**


	20. Chapter 19

**Aloha! I got tired of starting off with things that started with H, so I'm going to try not to type anything else in this greeting with the letter H starting… now! It's been fun writing a story like PJATDM. All of you seem to like all moments of Percy and … Wise Girl. So I'm going to try to put more into it. I don't want to go too fast, so I'm going to go same speed I've been going. Enjoy! And I don't own PJATO series. Yay! I did it! And to clear… I mean, make sense, I don't dislike any letter, just get tired of a certain ones. I know I'm odd. I'm reminded of it daily. **

After a long day of walking, we had finally made it to a small town. And I mean small. It was about the size of my school. There were no lights on, no cars around, no noises. It was a ghost town that had probably been here for years.

"Should we stop here for the night?" I asked Annabeth.

"Yes, but first, let's look around a little bit, I want to make sure there aren't any monsters here." I agreed and we started looking. I knew there were no monsters here thanks to my sight, but there was something fishy about this place. Something wasn't right.

Around the outskirts of the town were smaller buildings, probably only big enough to be a small public restroom. But as we got closer the center of the town, there were buildings that could house larger families, but they were all made of decaying wood and rusty screws that made everything look like it would come tumbling down even if we just breathed on it.

Finally, we made it to the very center of the town, and much to Annabeth's dismay, there was a horribly designed building standing at 2 stories tall. It looked like a wooden crate with windows.

"Now, if I had designed this, I would have spread the windows further apart and made the roof look more like a roof." She started.

"I let her babble about what she would have done while I went to go inspect things on the inside.

There was a lot of dust and everything was covered in cobwebs. With every step I took, there was a creak in the rotting wooden floor. The doors were falling off their hinges and there were holes in the base of the walls where I would expect rats to have been in at one point. All in all, this place looked disgusting.

As I turned to go into a different room, there was a creaking noise coming from every spot I checked. I knew that if I stepped any closer to my right, then the floorboards would break, and I didn't know if there was a lower level or not.

"Annabeth, stay there please." I asked her. She didn't reply, she just stood staring at me with a confused look on her face. "Just. Don't follow me. Wait here." I said before moving on. I walked deeper into the dark room finding a bar, and cupboards full of shot glasses. This must have been an old bar then. As I made my deduction, there was a sound that I wished I'd never heard.

There was the creaking of the floor behind me, Annabeth worriedly calling my name and then a scream. I had turned just in time to witness her fall through the floorboards into darkness below.

I ran over to the hole. "Annabeth! Can you hear me?" I asked. At first there was no reply, making me worry even more. Then there was a small squeak of "Sort of."

"I'm coming." I said, before jumping in. It was pitch black in the hole. I couldn't see one foot in front of me. I uncapped Riptide which let of a light glow that lit up the room a little. It looked like we were in a basement. Annabeth was rubbing her head and holding her leg. Her teeth were gritting.

"Are you sure you're ok?" I asked.

"I think my legs broken." She replied.

I groaned and sat next to her. Her leg was bent out of shape. "Do we have any nectar?"

"No, it was all in the truck." She said.

I pulled her up and helped her hop over to a crate that was a few feet away. She sat and tried moving her leg. It was no doubt broken. We couldn't go anywhere until her leg was better. There was only one thing that we could do at the moment if we wanted to continue with the quest. I had to come up with a quick excuse.

"Annabeth. I have a way to heal you, but I need you to close your eyes and not ask any questions."

She nodded out of pain and closed her eyes. I got some water out of the bottle that was in my pocket and poured some in my cupped hand. Then I laid it on her leg and let it slowly pour. I watched as it quickly flowed over her skin and then it started to glow a light blue. I watched in wonder as I did this. I hadn't really been paying much attention when I accidentally healed Nico. After a moment, the water stopped and fell to the basement's dirt floor.

"You can open your eyes now." I sais while backing up.

Annabeth quickly opened her eyes and looked down at her leg. "I-is it healed?" She asked.

"Try it out for yourself."

She moved it cautiously and got into standing position. I watched with a smiled as she took a step. Then she started testing it out by jumping, kicking, running, and stretching.

"How did you do that?" She asked.

"What did I say about no questions?"

She pouted and then started looking around. "It looks like we're in a basement of some kind. Since it's dirt, I would assume it was made in the late 1800's. Around the time of the old west, when people were building towns in every spot they could find."

I sighed again and leaned against the dirt wall to wait for Annabeth to finish her inspection and analysis. Once my back touched the wall, I felt something slide in like I had leaned on something with wheels. I jumped away and looked back to see the wall sliding in. Annabeth came over and joined me.

"What's going on?" She asked taking a step towards the door. I held my arm up to keep her from getting closer. This could be a trap.

The wall stopped after a second, leaving a 3 foot rectangular impression in the wall, and then it all started to move left. A little crack of dim light showed, and it started to grow thicker until it was nothing but a small section of light.

"Should we go in?" I asked. Annabeth didn't answer, she pushed my arm out of the way and walked in. I followed right behind her, keeping Riptide ready to strike at anything that might jump out.

It seemed safe enough. There were no growling monsters or spike walls. Only the sound of waterfalls and birds chirping. Wait… birds? I looked up and saw a big root looking thing, but no birds.

"Do you hear birds?" I asked. There was no answer. My heart jumped and I turned to see where Annabeth had gone, she was a few feet in front of me, but speeding up. I looked to see why and found Artemis sitting on a root swing that was attached to the ceiling. I joined them and bowed before her.

"Lady Artemis, what is this place?" Annabeth asked. I was wondering the same thing.

"Ahh, Annabeth. A wise question. This is where my huntresses and I come when we are in need of a break. Everybody needs a break at one point and with my demigod huntresses away, we need a break more than ever."

"It's beautiful." Annabeth said. Admiring the pink, blue, and purple flowers along with the colorful birds that I had finally managed to see.

"Yes, it is. I had Persephone and Demeter help me with everything here. In return, I offered Persephone a safe haven to come to when she took her trips from the underworld." She looked at both of us curiously and I saw her transform into a girl about our age. "Now tell me, why are you two here?"

"It was an accident, I fell through the wooden floor and Percy came to help me. We were just trying to find a place to sleep for the night." Annabeth was definitely trying to cover up for her bringing a boy down to a place where only girls should be.

"Well, you are welcome to spend the night here. I shall show you where the huntresses are so they may make you feel comfortable."

**Sorry that took so long, I got writers block for a good day and a half, but this chapter's finished! Yay! Reviews are awesome. I swear I think I'm obsessed, I look at my inbox every 5 minutes to see if I have any new reviews. I know, it's sad. *sigh* but hey! That just means that that's how many reviews I get every day. It's exciting. So far, I've gotten 104 reviews! Way to go all of you! I wish I knew all of you in person so I could give all of you a high five. CYBER HIGH FIVE! ^ 5**


	21. Chapter 20

**Hey guys! I'm trying here. I'm trying to update as fast as I can with writers block. Some of you probably know what I'm talking about. Well anyways. I'm not going to bother with a long greeting this time. I don't own the series. I know people don't like to read it unless it has something juicy in it like why the heck we have an **_**octopus**_** predicting the world cup. ?. I worry for our sanity. Well, enjoy and review, or the other way around, I don't think it really matters. Oh! And I'm a Beta Reader now! **

Artemis showed us to a giant tree house that was in the middle of a giant root tree. It was absolutely huge. Probably bigger than the town that was above us. We were led inside, which I might add was even cooler than the outside. There were bows and arrows lined up on a wall rack like you would see at a bike shop. The carpet was made out of sewn leaves, along with the beds which looked like animal-pelt hammocks that were hung from the ceiling. Artemis said something to a girl that was passing by, but I was too engrossed in the place around us.

"Perseus?" The girl asked a little shyly. I guess she wasn't used to talking to guys. She couldn't have been more than ten or eleven. She had dark brown hair that was braided into nice neat braids. "I will take you to where you will be staying the night." I followed her to a room that was only about a quarter the size of the other one, in it was a single hammock and to my liking, a small waterfall. "Supper will be in a few minutes, make yourself at home." She said before walking out, closing the pelt curtain.

I went over to the waterfall and used some of the fresh water to rejuvenate my strength. I was tired and needed a rest, but as long as we were going to be staying up for a little while, I needed to feel strong.

"Knock, Knock." I heard from the door. I turned to see Annabeth. "Supper's ready, and Artemis wants to see us afterwards."

"Really? Why?"

She shrugged and I followed her out the door, down a hallway made of branches woven together, and into the largest room yet. The walls looked like they were made of perfectly smooth sanded wood with flaming torches lining them to make light. The ceiling was a magnificent mural of myths and legends that were told right before your eyes. I watched as it shimmered and seemed to move. The floor was a polished white marble; and right in the middle of all of this was a long dark cherry wood table that had intricate designs.

Around the table, there were many huntresses of all ages. At the end of the table sat Artemis holding a bronze cup high. "To Perseus and Annabeth, so that they will bring the mist back to us!"

Everybody echoed her praise and then we began to eat.

When I went back to my room feeling good and tired, I fell asleep quickly.

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The next morning, I woke up to a horn being blown in my ear. I had sat up immediately and almost fell to the floor. Next to me sat a big leather backpack, but there was nothing else in the room.

I got down and opened it finding clothes, food, ambrosia and nectar, golden drachmas, and other things that I might need. "I hope that it's enough to get you through your quest." I heard behind me. I turned to see Artemis in the form of a 12 year old.

"I think it is. I just hope we don't lose it. Thank you my lady." I bowed my head.

"No thanks are needed. The fact that you are going on a dangerous journey to save things that are important to all of us is all I need to put my mind at rest. Well, at least for the moment. The huntresses work is never done." She smiled, then left.

Annabeth came in only seconds later. "Let's head out. We don't want to spend too much time dilly-dallying or we might not make it to the next town by tonight."

"Geez wise girl, you're worse than Chiron." I joked. I wanted to enjoy my good mood while I had one.

Annabeth frowned and crossed her arms. "Percy, you would never make it on your own. You have too much kelp in that head of yours."

"Well, your head's going to burst from all that wisdom." I replied, swinging the leather bag over my shoulder.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and smiled. "Come on Seaweed Brain." Then she walked out the door quickly, making me run to catch up to her.

Another huntress led us up to the exit and waved us off. In the bright sun, the old deteriorating building didn't look so dangerous and spooky. We found and easy way up and out. The road was easy to find, and we began to follow it again. This time, we had a small clue where we were going.

2,049 steps later…

"How far have we gone?" I asked or I should say complained.

"I don't know, but there's no town in sight."

"Can we possibly stop?" I asked.

"That's a good idea. Maybe we can eat something and get our energy back." We sat down on a nearby log and I pulled out a couple of sandwiches and water. The water reminded me of the message from my father. He wanted me to practice my new powers.

Setting my sandwich down and closing my eyes, I ventured around with my extra senses and found that the nearest body of water was a water tank.

"I'm going to go for a walk. Um, don't go anywhere and if something seems out of place just scream." I said standing up.

"Well, how long will you be?"

"Don't know, no more than an hour though."

She seemed to struggle with coming up with an answer. "Alright, but don't go too far." She finally settled on."

I agreed and went to go find the water tank. It was only about a quarter of a mile into the woods. IT was easy to find. I climbed the ladder and looked inside. There was a lot of water in the thing. I uncapped Riptide, Cyclone formed on my head again. **AN:(I haven't mentioned the helmet in a while huh, I almost forgot about it too I was so into the story) **The knowledge rushed into my head. I practiced on almost all my new powers. I had gotten all of them down until I started practicing the newest one. Changing myself into water. I tried everything, and I knew the mechanics of it, but I didn't know how to actually change myself into water.

Just when I thought that I almost had it, Annabeth yelled from her spot.

"Percy! Hurry! Get over here!" My heart skipper a beat. What could be there? I jumped from the top of the ladder and landed on my feet, only to break into a run. If whatever it was hurt Annabeth I would rip it to shreds.

I burst through the line of trees ready to fight, only to see Annabeth standing safely next to the road where a bus was coming down.

I felt my face turning bright red from embarrassment while I capped Riptide. Annabeth was watching the bus in high hopes that it would come over and stop. I joined her and we waved it down. Luck was in our favor because the bus pulled over and opened the doors. It was a regular old charter bus, but it would hopefully be a good source of transportation.

Inside sat a man with brown hair and green eyes. He was around his 30's. "Hey! What are you kids doing out in the middle of the woods?" He asked. I told the closest truth I could without freaking him out.

"Our truck broke down and we decided to walk, we're kind of lost."

"Well, come on aboard then, you can come with us."

We smiled a thanks and climbed on quickly. Inside was, you guessed it, a traveling choir group. They were all dressed in purple with bug smiles.

"So, where are you guys headed?" The driver asked as we took the seat behind him.

"Seattle." I replied. The man laughed a hearty laugh. "Well, you're in definite luck today. We're heading for Washington as well."

"That's good." Annabeth said and looked at me. "Now we don't have to walk the whole way."

/

**Hey, sorry about this short and boring chapter. It was just a filler, I promise to add more exciting stuff next chapter. So I have a heads up. The weekend after this one, I'm going on vacation with my family. I won't be able** **to write much since we don't get wi-fi in an RV… so I will be writing, I just won't be updating. Although I should have a plethora of chapters for you when I get back. I'm not promising anything, just saying what I hope is true. I want to say thank you to all my reviewers and send a shout out to .. You are awesome and I'm glad you like my story! **


	22. Chapter 21

**Oh! MY! GOSH! I just found out I might be going to a Paramore concert! I'm addicted to the band! And I'm writing Chapter 22! This is awesome, and so exciting! Ok, calm down .BEASTXx . So some of you are saying that the bus ride is a trap… well, it is in a way. Every person in there is a clueless mortal, but they are unknowingly leading our dear characters into a predicament. So, I'm tired of putting a disclaimer on every chapter so I'm just going to put it on my profile. Tell me if you want more Percabeth, because I'm good at writing it, but I don't know where to put it in. I have ideas though. When I do put it in, don't laugh at my cheesiness. Here's chapter 22.**

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The bus was heated, exactly what I needed in the cold winter. It had started to frost in some areas, making the road slippery. I was surprised that it was actually warm enough earlier to keep the water in the tank in its liquid state. Not that it would have been a problem with my powers. The bus driver which I had found out was also the director of the group had roused everybody to sing a very loud but in tune number. Even Annabeth and I had joined in.

After only 13 hours of no traffic and snow, we were finally entering Washington. Everybody was now asleep, except the driver, due to the time. But I couldn't sleep. Only a few more hours and we would be in Seattle and find Nico. But how would we find one kid in the middle of a busy city? Annabeth seemed to notice my worry.

"Calm down, I shouldn't be that hard to find him."

"It's one of the busiest cities in Washington. It could take a while." I said.

She shrugged. "We could always I.M. him. Do you have any golden drachma?"

I groaned and hit my head against the back of the seat. "What's wrong? Are you ok?" This time she was the worries one.

"I'm an idiot. We could have Iris Messaged him the entire time! Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"Well, I assumed you knew." She crossed her arms and faced out the window, refusing to look me in the eye.

"Fine." I sighed and pulled a drachma out of my pocket and made a thin mist in the area in front of us. The I threw in the drachma and said a silent prayer. "Nico Di'angelo. Seattle Washington." I said. The next thing I knew, there was giant black room with a motionless figure attached to the wall by what looked like chains.

"Nico?" I asked quietly, both for his safety and ours. The figure moved his head a little bit, but didn't look forward. "Nico." I said again, a bit louder. He looked up this time and looked straight at me.

"Percy?" He asked.

I nodded. "Are you ok?" Annabeth asked from next to me.

"Physically, yes; but I can't move from this wall. I haven't eaten anything for a full day and I've only gotten a sip of water."

"Where are you?"I asked next. "Who took you there?"

"I'm in the tip of the Seattle Needle. I'm not sure who took me, all I know is that it's not a mortal or a half-blood."

"We're coming to get you right now. We'll be there as soon as we can." Annabeth told him.

"Be careful. Whoever this is might be dangerous."

I rolled my eyes. "When are they not?"

Annabeth ran a hand through the I.M. and faced me. "So how are we going to find out what took Nico?"

"The way we always do. By accident."

"No Seaweed Brain. We need an actual plan this time."

"Fine." I said, throwing my hands in the air, and with that we started making plans. Well it was mostly Annabeth with her amazing extra wisdom.

We entered the city limits while we were asleep, but we woke up to something much less peaceful.

There was a crashing and then a screeching noise that woke everybody up. I could feel my body falling forward from the abrupt stop of the bus. I managed to catch myself on the seat, but Annabeth was beginning to fly out the side of the seat. Without thinking about it, I reached out and grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back into the seat right before a burst of fire went through the center of the bus. There were screams from people around me.

After making sure that Annabeth was ok, I looked over the seat to see a Hydra. It had two of its heads sticking inside the broken windshield and the rest were trying to rip off the bus' roof. I stood and uncapped Riptide, making cyclone grow heavy on my head. Annabeth stood beside me and pulled out the ice sword.

"Everybody, get out of the back emergency exit and run. We'll take care of this thing." I said.

There was a frightened woman sitting in then seat across from us staring at us with wide eyes. "You're one of those kids. The one's that fight off the monsters!" She yelled. There was a boy around 19 sitting next to her. "MOM! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" He yelled, grabbing her hand and beginning to pull her up. She was just about up when a head came in and grabbed him by his shirt pulling him away.

"Matthew!" She screamed after him. Then she looked at Annabeth and me who were trying to fight off one of the heads. I looked back at her. "Please, help my son! You have to help him! Please!" I looked at the head that was pulling the boy away, and then at Annabeth. I couldn't leave her alone or something would happen to her.

"Come with me." I said

She looked at me shocked. "What?"

"Come with me." I said grabbing her arm and pulling her with me. We went after the head as the woman watched anxiously.

"How do we defeat this one?" I asked.

"I'll distract it. You try to find something to kill it with, and remember, don't cut off the heads." I nodded and looked around for something to do. I could always stab it, but how would I be sure that it would die from that? I tried feeling around for any water that would be anywhere. The only water I found was in the air and in bodies of things around me. How could I kill this thing without harming anything else?

The kid screamed and I saw him being flipped in the air. He didn't have long. That's when I got the idea. The monster also had water in it. I focused on my new powers and soon the hydra looked like it was dripping sweat. Then, I froze all the water that was in its body. The monster froze into place. I walked up to the head that was holding the guy and I cut him loose. His mother ran to him and hugged him tightly. I turned away from them to give them some time together, capped Riptide and walked over to Annabeth.

"That worked. How did you do that?" She asked.

"I brought all the water out of him." I replied. "The cold just did the rest."

Suddenly, I was attacked from behind, but not by a monster. It was the woman hugging me. "Thank you so much. Please, there must be something I can do to repay you!"

"No, it was nothing. I deal with this sort of stuff on a daily basis. Just try to stay away from these things." I replied.

"There must be something." She objected.

Don't worry about it. It was actually probably our faults that this monster was here. He can smell out blood."

"Well, thank you anyways. We'll repay you someday."

"Actually, once we finish our journey, nobody will remember any of this. I'm sorry. But at least you're both safe."

She nodded and walked back to her son who was standing among the group of singers. Annabeth pulled out a golden drachma. "Percy, could you…"

I made a thin mist from the water in the air and Annabeth threw the drachma in. "Apollo, mount Olympus." She said.

"Why him?" I asked.

"He can get them a bus to ride in from here on." She replied.

Apollo answered with a haiku as usual, but agreed to send a bus to come. After we saw it coming Annabeth and I began walking to the needle that was easily seen above Seattle.

"Nico should be in the very tip. We're going to have to be careful if we're going to be that high up. We don't want a replay of last time we visited a national monument."

She agreed and we began our 4 mile walk to save Nico.

**Please review. I really like reading them. I'm sort of mellow right now because tomorrow, we were supposed to start my vacation with my cousins, but at the last second, they called and said that their dad wouldn't let them. But, on the upside, we're going cabin camping, which means… internet! I can update new chapters while on vacation! The 8 hour drive should be boring, so I'm glad I have a laptop I can type on! **


	23. Chapter 22 the link doesn't work

**HI! So, I'm up camping in Northern California Right now and I can't believe that they have Wi-Fi. I turned my computer on to type and internet popped up. I almost started bouncing up and down embarrassingly. So, I'm going to be going back home tomorrow. =( . I really like it up here in Mammoth because it's so nice, although, we have been getting some random thunder storms up here. If you've never seen Mammoth before I suggest looking at this picture of convict lake. (My favorite lake up here) ./3077/2619744704_ . I didn't take this picture, but it's almost exactly the way it looked up there today. The only difference was the sky was cloudier and we were in a different position. Ok, so, I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and don't forget to review!**

We were at the base of the Needle by three in the afternoon. Of course it was raining, but thanks for my water-proof skin, I didn't get wet at all. Annabeth was holding my shoulder so she wouldn't get wet either. The needle was a thin building that had glass windows lining the main building and rocked uneasily in hard wind. It was actually very safe; unless you're a half-blood on your way to save another half-blood from a potentially dangerous monster, then it could be very dangerous.

The adult costs were twenty dollars a person, and since Annabeth and me were both 16, we were counted a adults. We both got in line and waited tensely for around thirty minutes before we got to the front. I pulled out a fifty and handed it to the cashier. She took it and gave me my change.

"There's room for only one of you in the elevator, one of you will have to wait for the next one." She said with a disgusting nasally voice.

Annabeth turned to me. "You go first, I'll stay down here to watch things." She said.

The thought of Annabeth down here by herself made me shudder. Who knows what kind of danger was down here. Not to mention that there was a possible enemy trying to use her as bait.

"No, we'll both stay down here. The next person can go." I objected.

Annabeth gave me a 'what the heck are you doing?' face. The cashier shrugged and pushed us into the waiting line and said "suit yourselves."

"What did you do that for?" She hissed at me.

"I didn't want anything bad to happen to you." I said without even thinking about it. Once I realized what I said and what it could have been mistaken for I blushed.

Annabeth's tone lightened up. "Well, then in that case, thank you." Then her face became serious. "But it would have worked out better Seaweed Brain." She punched my arm, but because she called me by my nickname, I knew that she wasn't really mad.

"You can go on now." The lady said as the elevator doors opened, letting people off. Annabeth, me, and a ton of other people filed into the elevator and squished into our own little spots. I had it worse off because I was in a corner. People were basically leaning on me.

The doors opened and we all quickly got out relishing in personal bubble we had all lost for a short period of time.

"Where do you think he is?" I asked.

"I don't know, look for a door or symbol on the wall. Something that could be a passageway."

I nodded and pretended to look around. As soon as I knew she wasn't looking, I used my extra sense to look around. I found a fake door in the wall behind a shelf in the snack bar. I tried entering with my sight, but something seemed to be blocking me. I went back to my real sight and noticed a slight indentation in the wall.

"Annabeth." I called her quietly.

She turned around and I waved her back to me, she came quickly. "Did you find something?" She whispered.

I nodded and pointed to the wall. She looked closer and finally seemed to notice it. "How did you see that?" She asked in disbelief.

"I, um, was just looking at the walls and it popped out at me." I lied.

She looked back at it. "Ok, so I'll create a distraction while you sneak behind there and get it open." She said. I agreed and went into position.

The next thing I heard was her voice talking to the person behind the snack bar that was closest to the door.

"Excuse me sir, but um, I think there's something you should see." She said.

"I'm sorry Miss, but I'm not supposed to leave my post. I don't want to get fired."

"But I think there's a crack in the window over there." She pointed to a random spot. The man became worried and looked over to where she was pointing.

"Oh no." He said, getting out from behind the counter to go check. When he turned away, I opened the door and went inside quickly, Annabeth followed right behind me, and closed the door. There were dim lights leading up a spiraling set of stairs.

"Do you think he's up there?" She asked.

"There's only one way to find out." I started up the long flight of stairs. By the times I reached that top, I was breathing hard. There were more stairs then there should have been for a little building on a giant stick. Annabeth was right behind me and she didn't even seem a little bit winded.

"He had to be up here somewhere."

"How are you not tired." I breathed.

She ignored my question and continues walking. There were several doors around a big room. "Carefully check all of them." She said going to the first. I went and opened a few. I was on the fourth door when I heard Annabeth gasp. I turned and saw a green scaly arm reach out of a door and pull her in.

"Annabeth!" I yelled and dove for her, but the door closed too fast for me and I ended up hitting into it head first. I stood up unharmed and tried opening the door. It was locked.

So I did the only thing that came to my mind at the time. I pounded on the door commanding they let me in. I heard shouts and yelling, and that made me even more nervous. I had to force myself to calm down and think. I could try the turn my body to water thing, but I still didn't know how, I could try the extra sight thing, but I wasn't able to do that once we passed through the door. There was only one thing I could do and it was have another 'out of body' experience.

I took a step back and uncapped Riptide. Cyclone informed me of the things I had to do, and I put them both away. I thought about what could have been going on in the other room, and though it cause un-needed worry, I let every possibility cross my mind.

Annabeth and Nico being forced out the window of the tall building; Annabeth not only finding Nico, but also a dozen monsters about to kill her; and then there was one that scared me most of all: Nico and Annabeth trying to fight back, but they are captured and put into dark boxes while they are told they are going to perish in the underworld. That's when I saw what was going on inside the room.

It was a slightly dark room with curtained windows and cold air. I knew exactly what the monsters were once I saw them. They were the Dracnae. There were four of them, each smiling in their own different evil way. Annabeth was backed into a corner, sword drawn, while I saw Nico tied to the wall trying to get at them. The Dracnae were about to scratch at Annabeth.

I didn't know what came over me, but I felt a sudden adrenaline rush. My consciousness snapped back into my body and I took a few steps back for a running start. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I ran and rammed the door down. It went down fairly easy for someone with invincibility. Two of them darted out the door leaving the last two, and I knew exactly who one of them was.

Although I didn't remember her name very well, (I think it was Kelly or something like that), I knew that she had been an associate of Kronos. The one who had almost killed me on open house at Goode High School. She was smiling at me.

"Well hello, Perseus. It's been a while hasn't it?"

I glared at her. "Yes, it has."

"You do know that you're not going to make it out this time right? We have allies all around, but you, you have only the people in this room at the moment, and they're helpless right now." I looked at Nico, who was still tied to the wall, and then at Annabeth, who was being tied up as I we spoke.

I turned back to the monster and held Riptide higher. "Let them go."

"But where's the fun in that? If I just let them go, then I wouldn't get to taste the amazing blood that keeps you alive, the blood of a half-god/ half-human. And not just any half-blood, the most powerful half-blood in existence."

I felt my heart-rate speeding up, but I didn't let my fear get the best of me. Instead, I let it energize me. I waited until she started getting closer and closer. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Annabeth and Nico tense up when they saw that I was doing nothing to help myself. I could almost feel them trying to pull me out of the way. But I was doing this for them. My first priority was to get them out and to safety.

"What's wrong Percy? Cat got your tongue?" The other one said. She was closer than the main one. I had to get rid of one of them soon, than I could get rid of the other one easier. 'Just on more second.' I thought to myself. Time seemed to slow down as the less dangerous one took one more step. Now, she was just within reach.

I jumped into action, swinging Riptide to my left. It cut through her like butter, causing her to disintegrate immediately, while I turned to the other. She was further back now and looking for an opening to get at me. We stayed in this deadly dance until I heard Annabeth yell: "Percy! Behind you!"

I swung Riptide behind me, hoping that whatever it was, it wasn't a friend. No, it was one of the escapee Dracnae, and I had disposed of it only seconds before it disposed of me. The leader was now dangerously close and there was one though that went through my mind. 'Save my friends'. I lifted my hand, and water came rushing in at random places, the window, the hallway; even places where there weren't even faucets. It quickly started to fill up the room. The room was up to my neck now and almost covering Annabeth's and Nico's noses. I made a little bubble of air around them, but the Dracnae wasn't so lucky, she held her throat, trying not to breathe in, but failed. She opened her mouth and water started rushing in, and soon after there was a sulfuric tint in the water. I let it all drain out of the place and ran up to Annabeth to untie her.

"You ok?" I asked.

She nodded as I let her loose and her feet touched the floor. "Hey, I think you're missing somebody." Nico said. I turned to him and untied him too, then gave him some of the food from the pack that was in the circular room.

"Finally, some actual food!"

"We need to go see your dad." I told him. Nico stopped eating and looked at me with confusion and disbelief plainly on his face. "He was the one who told us you were in Seattle, he has Rachel and Thalia."

"At least we had to go down there anyways." He said, finishing off the sandwich.

"Do you know of any other short-cuts to the Underworld, or do we have to go to LA?"

He nodded. "Yes." Then he walked out of the room, leaving two annoyed people behind. I followed after him down the stairs then to the elevator down.

"What do you mean by 'yes'?"

"I mean, that I've learned a new way to the underworld, a safer, easier way."

We reached ground level and he lead us to an alleyway. "Where's the truck anyways?"

I rubbed my head. "Um, it… kind of… got smashed by a rock."

"He almost got killed himself. I still don't know how he got out alive. It was almost as if he turned into a liquid form and slithered his way away from the damaged vehicle."Annabeth said.

Nico looked at me suspiciously and I gave him an "I'll tell you later" look. He dropped it and we laughed at Annabeth's right on assumption.

**I'm so sorry it took me so long to put this up. I've just been lazy, and with vacation and summer school and stuff, it's been hard to get some me time. I really want to make it up to you guys so I'm going to upload a little Percy Jackson one-shot tonight. I'm working on it as you're reading this or it's already done. But you're going to have to review asking for the name of it to read. NO SHORTCUTS! =). I like getting reviews and people haven't been sending me any lately, it's making me depresses. I want you to know that if you feel I am going too slow with the story, don't hold back on reminding me. My friend T.F. has been forgetting to do that lately. Review! Review! Review! I've actually learned how to answer questions in private now. It's called a P.M. I'm a dork for not knowing that. =)**


	24. Chapter 23

**You guys are too sweet. All the reviews I've been getting are making me feel like a real author. I know I've been getting sloppy, and I apologize. I will try to make it better. I have an online class and it's sucking up my time like soup through a straw. I'm having problems coming up with unique ideas, so I'm writing little side stories to clear my mind and maybe bring new ideas to my head. So far, it's been working. I'm doing the best I can, so be patient please, cause I don't want to kill you with suspense as some of have put it. Just think of it as an episode on TV. You don't know what's going to be on the next episode, but you know that one comes out a week, and sometimes there are more than one. I'm going to attempt a double chapter update this week, like I did in the beginning of the fic. Please review! I enjoy getting them!**

Annabeth laughed along with us, not understanding that she had just told us the actual truth. After a while of uncomfortable, awkward laughing on my part, I cleared my throat and turned to Nico.

"Ok, so what do you mean by a 'safer and easier way to the underworld'?"

"I mean that I have gotten complete control over my talents and can open a portal."

"How?" Annabeth asked, digging for new information for her never satiated mind.

"First, we have to find a dark, empty place." He spread his arms out, gesturing to the alley we were standing in. "We have that." He moved over to a stained brick wall. "Then we need a flat surface to open it in." He touched the wall with both his hands. "And last, but most definitely not least. We need the power of a son of the underworld." He closed his eyes and seemed to go into a sort of deep trance. The wall started creaking and I took a step back, pulling Annabeth with me. A black hole-looking thing appeared in the wall and the sound of moaning came through. Moaning and crying. I knew what the sound was. It was the sound of death.

"We're ready to go." I was too absorbed in the noise to notice that Nico had backed up from the wall and was waiting for us to join him. He looked solemn and I was once again reminded that his excitement for the quest had died down.

"Alright." I started walking forward, but hesitated right before stepping through. "Will this thing skin me or something?" I asked.

Nico shook his head. "No, it's nothing but a portal. It might lead someplace dangerous, but I'm sure you'll be alright." I gulped and nodded before stepping all the way through.

The other side was frightening, depressing, and sad. It was a scene straight from a horror film. There were spirits with heads chopped off, with missing appendages, things going through their body. I was guessing this was the place where the murdered stayed. I turned around to see Annabeth come through, then the portal closed up.

"Where's Nico?" I asked quickly. Annabeth looked around. Her face growing worried.

"I don't know. Do you think he's still in Seattle?"

"He better not be, if he is then his dad isn't going to be happy."

We both started walking through the unfamiliar part of the underworld. Spirits came up to us and chattered, and for a second, I thought I had understood it. But it couldn't have been possible. This was the language of the dead.

A voice entered my head. It wasn't Hades, it wasn't my dad. It was undoubtedly Hermes.

'Perseus. This a power given to you by both your father and I. Embrace it. It will come in handy.'

The voice went away and I looked at Annabeth to see if she had noticed anything. She was nervously flickering her eyes around, and with my dream-entering ability, I knew that she was thinking about the dream she had had where I had saved her. She didn't want that to happen in real life. Truthfully, I didn't even want to fight anymore, unless of course it was for fun, but it wasn't for fun for the last week and a half. It had been full blown fight. We had both been miserable because of it.

There was a rumble of stones falling from the surface and Annabeth reached out and grabbed my arm. I knew how she felt, being alone down here would be worse than a nightmare. (**A.N.: I know that was in TLT, but it was too tempting. I had to put it in)**. I let her hold my arm and whenever a random spirit came out of nowhere, I let her hide behind me.

It wasn't like her to be this sensitive, but like I said before. Most of her strength and courage came from the fact she had her celestial bronze spear in front of her. Now that it was missing, she probably thought of herself as handicapped.

"Do you think we're getting close?" I asked.

She shook her head and jumped a little bit when a rock fell near us. I had to agree, that I wanted to go back up to the surface.

"Come on, we need to find Nico." We entered another part of the underworld, but we were still lost. Normally, I wouldn't ask for direction, but I was desperate.

"Annabeth, stand right here ok. Don't go anywhere, I'll only be a few feet away." She nodded and I took a few slow steps over to a roaming spirit.

He was an older man that chattered at me, and I was amazed when I understood him. "You're alive." When I didn't answer at first, he shrugged and started walking away. I snapped myself out of it and called for him.

"Hey! Wait!" I said in a quiet voice so Annabeth wouldn't hear. The man turned around with wide ghost eyes.

"You just talked to me. Mortals can't talk to the dead."

"Well, I can. I need help. My friend is lost down here. He has dark black hair and looks kind of dreary."

He thought about this. "Yeah, I saw a boy like that. He was walking on the way to Hades." 'Probably to talk to him so Annabeth and I don't have to go as well.' I added.

"How do you know about all the Greek stuff?" I asked. Normally people who had died wouldn't know about any of this stuff.

"I'm a demigod. I wasn't exactly the best person to be around. That's why I'm here and not on the isle blest."

That reminded me of the prophecy. "Do you know how to get to Isle Blest?" I asked.

"Just go around the next dead tree and go straight. After about 10 minutes, you'll see the water of the River Styx surrounding it. Getting across is a little more difficult."

"And if you're the son of Poseidon who's just happened to take a dip in the Styx already?" I asked. The spirit looked surprised.

"Well, in that case, you're going to get across easily."

I thanked him and started to walk away, but he called me and I turned around. "Tell Zeus I'm sorry. Tell him Michael's sorry." I nodded and kept walking.

Annabeth had been watching the entire time. When I got into hearing range, she said. "Did you understand anything he was saying to you?"

I didn't have the gut feeling that was saying 'tell her' so I shook my head. "I was asking for directions and drawing it out on the ground with my foot. He was able to understand what I wanted to know, and helped me." I took her hand subconsciously and started walking with her, pulling her behind me. I knew that if I didn't pull her, she wouldn't go anywhere. "I know how to get to Isle Blest. I have a feeling Nico's seeing his dad so we don't have to, so we can go see whoever the prophecy told us to see."

She didn't reply. I looked back at her to see her face was tinted light red. "Are you ok?" I asked, hoping that she didn't feel sick.

"Y-Yeah I'm fine." She stammered. I nodded and we continued walking.

Just like the Michael had said, there was a dead tree, we turned right and I saw a long stretch of land. The only problem, there were stalactites poking out of the top of the area, and there were tons of them poking out of the ground where they fell. If we weren't careful, we could be skewered.

"Let's go." I said pulling Annabeth. She followed behind quickly and quietly. If we made so much as an echo, we could send a few of the sharp rocks spiraling down to us.

We walked and I started to get an uneasy feeling. I knew the feeling, it was the feeling of pure evil. Kronos was near. I looked to my left and saw the entrance to Tartarus. We were getting closer to it as we walked. If we wanted to get to the other side of the stretch of land, then we would have to pass by it.

I felt Annabeth's finger nails digging lightly into my skin and even though it didn't hurt, I probably would have been bleeding if I was normal.

We we're almost there, about another two minutes, but luck was not on our side. When is it ever? A spider was drifting on a little strand of silk right in front of us. Annabeth hadn't noticed yet, but if I didn't steer her away from it, then it wouldn't freak out.

I started walking a different direction, and she tugged lightly on my hand. I looked at her and she was glaring at me. I shrugged and she pointed to the way we had been going. I shook my head and I pulled her along with me, but she tugged back stubbornly and pointed again to the main way. She started to look that way, the spider right in her sight of vision. I tried pulling her away, but I was too late. She saw the spider, and let out a squeak.

At first, the noise just echoed around the cavern and I thought we were safe. But that was before it started to rumble. I pulled Annabeth closer and we started to run. The sharp rocks started falling all around us, some small rocks hit me and I blocked Annabeth so she wouldn't get hurt by any. The dropping started to slow down and there were only several more left on the ceiling.

'Almost there.' I thought, right before I tripped. Annabeth went down beside me. I heard a snap from above and looked up to see a stalactite falling right for us. Very much like the truck incident, I pushed Annabeth out of the way and got ready to get hit. I wouldn't have died if I got hit on any other part of me than my lower back, but that was the spot where the she rock was going to shish kebob me. I felt my Achilles heel tingle.

"NO! PERCY!" Annabeth yelled from where she was at.

I waited a second, and then a few more. Pretty soon it was a minute. Confused, I rolled over and saw the rock was hanging in midair. This couldn't be one of my new powers because I didn't feel any energy flowing through me. I looked over to Annabeth who was facing my way, her arm was up and she looked surprised. She was the one doing this. She was the one who saved me. One thing floated through my mind, before I rolled out from the dangerous area. 'Her extra Wisdom.'

**Yay! I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading it! You want to know what I would enjoy reading even more though? A nice long review! Or a small one, it doesn't really matter. I'll update later this week or even today! My family computer isn't working, and I' happy I have my own laptop! **


	25. Chapter 24

**Hey Guys! I'm so, so sorry it took so long to update, my mom confiscated my laptop for not doing chores and homework, but some of you know how that is. So I tried to make this chapter as interesting as I could. Hopefully you like it, and review, but if you don't… it wouldn't hurt to still review. Keep reading! And I'm not sure if I told you guys yet, but I accidentally called Kelly a Dracnae, she's actually an empousa. Thanks to the many people who corrected me. And if you could pray for my friend, I'm not sure if you've hear about it yet, but she was in the car accident on her way up to a high altitude training camp, luckily in one of the vans that didn't crash, but she's a little shaken up. Another reason why I couldn't type all week. Thank you to everyone, and next time, don't be afraid to remind me to type, because I read my e-mails every day. Enjoy the chapter!**

I stood and as soon as I was out from under the rock, it dropped with Annabeth's hand and she ran to me, pulling me into one of the tightest hugs in history. "Seaweed Brain, are you ok?" She asked.

"Of course I am. You?"

"I'm a little surprised, what happened with the rock? Was it you?"

I laughed a little bit. "Actually, it was you." A feeling was telling me to let her know about something, so I told her about the gift from her mother. "One thing that I couldn't tell you before was that your mother sent you some extra wisdom to help with saving the mist. Apparently she gave you so much, you can move things with your mind."

A blinding smile came across her face. "Really? That's cool. Now I don't have to worry about you having to defend me every second."

"It is only temporary, nobody but your mom knows when it's going to wear off."

"That's ok, as long as I'm able to fight and defend myself, I'm fine." A call echoed to our right, then there were whispers and voices. We both turned to see Nico leading Rachel, Thalia and Ashley over to us.

"Hey guys! You did it!" Thalia said with a smile. Nico nodded a thanks to us and Ashley hugged us both. Rachel then came up and shook Annabeth's hand lightly and awkwardly, then came over to me, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Hey Percy! Thanks so much!" She flung her hands around my neck and held tight in a hug that was at a close match to Annabeth's, but not quite.

I looked at Annabeth as if to ask for permission to hug back when I and saw her standing there with an angry mask on her face. I immediately pulled out of Rachel's embrace and offered my hand instead, hoping that Annabeth wouldn't get mad at me for that. She seemed to be ok with a hand shake, but her face was still a little red.

"Ok! Now let's get on with our quest!" Thalia said. "Where do we have to go next?"

"Well, what have we finished in the prophecy so far?" Nico asked.

Annabeth dug through her mind for the prophecy. "A group of six will travel west, to a majesty called isle Blest." She said then looked at all of us. "That's about all we've done so far."

'This quest was turning out to be really long.' I thought.

"So we need to go to isle Blest?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah, but only three people can go to the island at once, it would be dangerous if more than that went." Nico warned.

"Ok, so who's going?" Ashley asked.

"Nico, Annabeth and me." I said before anybody else volunteered. Thalia was glaring at me, Rachel looked relaxed and Ashley looked stressed.

"Why does Annabeth have to go?" Thalia asked. "I thought you two were fighting."

"Not anymore, it was over something stupid. My mom's the goddess of wisdom, and stupidity isn't something that I'm used to."

Thalia huffed and crossed her arms, refusing to say anything else. "We would have had you come as well, but your father's god of the skies and underground and sky just don't mix." I tried to reassure her.

She lightened up a little bit and a smile actually touched her face. "Alright, but you owe me next time we go someplace that not all of us can go to."

Nico lead us to what looked like a bridge to the island. "Ok, so the rest of you stay here and wait for us. If we're not back in an hour, then continue on without us." I said.

They nodded and Nico, Annabeth and me walked across the bridge. It was quiet until Nico broke the silence. "If I wasn't with you two then you would be burning an excruciating pain. Usually the living can't even make it halfway across this bridge because it basically burns them alive. But that's when I come into play, my underworld heritage keeps me from burning up and I'm able to protect you two as well. The only reason the others can't come is because I can only protect two people at a time, and you are the ones in charge of this mission."

"Well, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one with freaky powers." Annabeth said. Nico looked at her strangely then back at me.

"Her extra wisdom gave her a sort of telekinesis. She found out by saving my butt." I explained and he pretended to understand.

A few more steps later, we were almost halfway across when Nico started saying something.

"There's something else I forgot to tell you two." He said uneasily.

"And that would be?" I asked warily, when Nico sounded uneasy, it was best to be uneasy.

"The bridge isn't exactly whole. As we get closer, it starts to temporarily fall apart. You need to find a way across without falling in. I can only help you guys for so long."

"Great." Annabeth said. "How is the path decided?"

"Decided?" I asked. What was she talking about?

"Like, how do you know which way to go. Do we need to solve riddles, or is it a test of strength?"

"Actually, it depends moral and virtues. What you would do in a situation." Nico explained as we approached the halfway point.

As soon as the rest of the bridge came into view, I groaned. There were eight sections, each had different paths with a smaller section for stopping. On each section there were four different paths and they all looked dangerous.

One had charred wood, one had termite infested wood, one had crumbling wood, and the last looked sturdy.

"I like the looks of the sturdy path." Annabeth said.

"That's supposed to be a trick path. It might look safe, but you never really know if it's the safe one."

"Ok then, well, I could always just carry us across?" Annabeth suggested.

"Extra powers don't work here. While you're on this bridge, you're about as mortal as Rachel." Nico said. Annabeth and I both groaned. Nico just shrugged as if it sounded normal to him, which it probably was.

After staring at the opposing bridge for a little while, I started to go forward. "Might as well get going." I stopped at the first section and a little golden dust sign popped out of the wood. It was in Greek, so I was able to read it.

'_A virtue of tolerance is what it takes to find the path that leads the way.'_

"Ok, and…?" I said. Annabeth read it as well.

"What do you think it means?" She asked Nico.

"I'm not the wise one hear, you are. You decide, but to me it sounds like someone with the virtue of tolerance should go first on this one." He replied.

"Sounds good enough to me." I said.

"So, who has tolerance?" Nico asked.

We looked at each other. "Well, Nico had to put up with being locked up in the room." I offered.

"And you had to put up with jumping into the river Styx." Annabeth said.

"Yeah," Nico said before I could say anything else. "But Annabeth has to put up with you." He told me.

I would have said something smart back, but unfortunately Nico was right. "Annabeth goes first." Both Nico and I say together with a nod. Annabeth smiled and walks to the first path. After looking at it for a few seconds she moves onto the next, then the next.

"This one." She says pointing to the third one. "It's glowing."

I look at it closer, but I see no glowing. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She then takes a step onto it. I prepare myself to grab her if it crumbles, but it doesn't and she keeps walking. As soon as she's across, the wood hardens and becomes just like the rest of the bridge. We follow after her and reach her as she reads the next little sign.

'_A virtue of devotion is not lost when one who has it goes over the cost.'_

"Does anyone see a rhyme scheme going on here?" I asked.

"I think it's Nico, we all know how hard he tried to get his sister back." Annabeth said.

I agreed and Nico took a step forward. He looked at each path carefully and went with the second one. "I see what Annabeth means. It is glowing." He started walking and I felt safer walking across this one because it was the one that looked sturdy.

It went like this until the last path. I was kind of bummed because I hadn't lead a path yet. It was almost as if I didn't have any virtues.

As Annabeth read the last sign, my eye caught onto something glowing extremely bright. I focused on it only to notice it was the first path, the more dangerous-looking one. It was glowing a bright gold.

'_The last virtue, love, is what's needed to cease, but it needs to be love that gives the heart peace.'_

"What the heck does that mean?" Annabeth asked.

Nico put a hand to his chin and began to think. I started walking slowly and calmly over to the path.

"Percy, where are you going?" Annabeth asked. I turned around and caught Nico smirking.

"It's this path." I replied, pointing to the charred wood.

"Percy, there's no way that path is the right one." She said. I shook my head.

"This is glowing bright gold. Almost blinding bright." I said as I took one step onto the path.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled when the wood groaned, but I kept walking until I had made it safely onto the other side. When I looked back, Annabeth was staring at me in disbelief and Nico was already starting to follow.

"You're perfectly safe. Just come across." I called. I could feel the comfortable feeling of power flowing through me again, and I knew that I had my new powers back. I watched Annabeth carefully as she crossed, making sure she didn't trip. Nico was already next to me, looking between me and Annabeth suspiciously.

"Yep, I was right." He finally said. What was he talking about this time? I turned to him.

"Right about what?"

"It's just something you're going to have to figure out on your own." He said defiantly.

Annabeth made it across and came over to join us. "So, mind enlighteningly me on what the last riddle meant?" I shrugged.

"I believe it means the son of Poseidon here has a case of love-sickness. With who, I'm not sure he even knows."

I just stared at both of them in disbelief. I couldn't be in love could I? And If I was, then with who?

**So, I hope you enjoyed it and please review! I'll make sure to read them all and try to fill in some of your requests. It's the least I could do after that long break of no writing. And sorry T.F. for not updating sooner, thanks for reminding me though. Oh yeah! A reminder, even though I already said this I'm going to say it again. I'm A Beta Reader! Excitement! I haven't done any stories yet. Well, I guess everyone needs to be patient every once in a while huh. **


	26. AN

A.N.

Hey guys, I'm sorry this isn't a chapter, but I really wanted to let you know the reasons for not updating and that I'm so, completely sorry.

Ok, so my Grandpa just had surgery, school just started, one of my favorite teachers just got diagnosed with cancer and I'm being overworked.

I wake up every day to go to school at 8, learn for 6 hours, stay after school until 6 for cross-country practice, and then I go home to do homework. My weekends consist of an online class, cross-country practice, church, then working for service hours, so the only days I actually have off are Fridays like today, I'm working like a mad woman trying to get this chapter done, so please be patient with me.

I should have it up within a few hours if I don't get caught. (Just kidding, I'm allowed to have a few hours to myself). So please be ready! And I deserve all the impatient thoughts you all have of me, but I really am trying here.

.BEASTXx


	27. Chapter 25

**Hey Guys! I'm , sorry for not updating in forever. I practically forgot that I had this waiting for me I've been so busy. But I know you all might be getting irritated with me, so I'm going to update as much as I can now, no matter how short the chapter is, at least there's something there to read, right? So please enjoy this short chapter. I hope you review, even if it's to comment on how lazy I've been. **

I didn't really understand what Nico was saying. I was in love? How would he know? He's the son of Hades. Aphrodite's the love goddess.

I turned to see what Annabeth's reaction to Nico's assumption was. She looked devastated.

"You're in love?" She asked.

"NO! I mean, possibly, I mean… I don't know! Nico says that's what the riddle was, but I don't know who I'm in love with even if that is true! And I'm confused!" I babbled. I only babbled when I was confused or irritated, in this case I was both.

"But Nico said-" I cut her off.

"Is Nico the love goddess?" I asked. Annabeth shook her head and I turned to Nico. "And Nico, how would you know that I am in love?" I asked him.

"That's what the riddle meant." I sighed irritably and began walking deeper into isle blest.

"Percy! Where are you going?" Annabeth called.

"Hopefully to find the blinded friend that had met a disgraced end." I replied.

Isle Blest was beautiful. I knew that I wanted to come here when I died.

The pillars here were much cleaner and whiter than the one's at camp. The buildings looked like they were straight out of the old times, which was true. The dead were walking everywhere and I could hear a mix of ghost mumbles, Greek, and English. The buildings were huge, though not as big as Mt. Olympus. I even saw some spirits in bodies instead of just a mist.

In the middle of Isle Blest sticking out from the top, I saw a larger Greek building. "I think we need to go there." I stated. I knew that it was true. That that was where we would find who we needed.

I started walking again and they started to follow me, but Annabeth couldn't know about my new powers just yet. I had to go alone. "Um, I think that it would be a good idea to split up, just in case I'm wrong."

"That's a good idea." Annabeth agreed. "I'll go look around on my own, Nico can just do whatever." Nico rolled his eyes and walked off. I laughed and walked to the large building.

Inside was breathtaking. I had assumed it would be a very old, but beautiful place, but what I wasn't expecting was the magic that was in it. It was the same magic that allowed Chiron to fit his horse body into his wheelchair. The inside of this building was bigger than the camp's amphitheater.

The spirits I didn't expect either. I had expected just lifeless spirits floating around the place. But instead, the spirits in here had actual bodies. Even wearing gray robes, they would have looked human.

As I looked around, I tried to find a face that I would recognize. At first, there was nobody; that is until I caught sight of the one face I thought I'd never see again.

Standing talking to another spirit was Charles Beckendorf. I quickly walked over to him and waited for him to notice me. He turned around and saw me standing there. His eyes widened a little bit. "Percy?" But then he grew solemn again and sighed. "Of course you can't understand me, I'm dead. But at least you're still alive."

I was about to say something until he continued talking. "I wonder what you're doing here, there's probably a problem that needs to be solved. Oh well, it's not like I'm ever going to find out anyways, since-."

"Beck!" I interrupted. He looked surprised. "I can understand you." At this he looked baffled.

"You, someone who's living and breathing, can understand me?" He asked. He didn't seem to believe it.

"Yes, now would you please let me explain?" I asked.

He nodded and let me talk. I explained to him everything that had happened since he… well, you know. He paid full attention to it, not an easy feat for a demigod with ADHD. He seemed doubtful when I told him about the powers.

"So, do you know anybody who knows about the next part of the prophecy?"

"You know, I think I just might." He lead me down a hallway with intricate designs carved into the walls, and a sleek marble floor. I looked in a few of the rooms we passed. There was nothing special, a few games being played, a girl or two embroidering or singing.

"Here we are." He said, breaking me out of my trance. I looked into the room he was talking about to see a very pretty girl with dark hair and very fair skin. It was hard not to recognize her.

"Selena?"

**I love getting reviews, It's the highlight of my day. =)**


	28. Chapter 26

**What up my ever so wonderful readers. So, I. Am. Brain. Dead. I just took an ACT and I can't put any effort into anything I do, so I decided I would write a little bit and see which way my writing is better. I'm not sure if this is going to make sense, but when my mind is tired, like in early morning and late at night, my creativity turns up a notch. It must be my overactive imagination. Well, anyways. Enjoy the chapter and I want to thank those who corrected me on the spelling of Silena's name.**

_**Don't forget to review please. **_

To tell the truth, I wasn't at all shocked to see Selena sitting in the seat. But I was shocked to see that she had absolutely no makeup on and her eyes looked dead. Not at all like the Silena I used to know.

"Silena?" Beck asked. She looked over to him and I thought I saw her eyes brighten a tiny bit. She stood and walked over to him where they embraced. I guess they were still together. Even through death.

Then she turned to me. "Percy, it's good to see you're still alive, I would have expected you to come down here during that last battle."

"Um, thanks?" I said, not sure if that was a compliment or an insult.

"Silena, he came down here for a quest. The mist is disappearing, and our world is being exposed to the mortals. Since you seem to know about everything that's going on in the living world, I wondered if you could possibly tell Percy anything he might need."

I saw Silena's eyes cloud over, much like how Annabeth's did when she was trying to hide something, but Silena's eyes weren't as beautiful, I began to wonder where she was. I stopped my train of thought right there and shook myself to focus back on Silena. Darn ADHD.

"I'm sorry, I don't know anything." She replied, then turned around and sat back down. I heard a hint of fear in her voice. Like she was scared to tell me something.

"Silena, I know you're hiding something. Please, I really just need to know what's going on, no matter how small the amount of information you have, it will at least be something that I can build off of." I persisted. She looked at me sadly. I hoped that she would tell me whatever it was. She had to.

"I'm sorry Percy, it's a secret and my life depends on it. My mother told me to keep this secret until I'm positive of the right time."

Just like my father. I knew what I had to do now. I had already told Beck that I was gaining new powers, but I didn't tell him that they were gifts from my father.

"Silena, that's where you and I are in common. My dad told me to keep a secret as well, and not to let people know until I was sure that I needed o let them know. Right now I'm sure that I need to let you and Beck know what it is, and hopefully, afterward, you'll feel the same thing." They were looking at me as if I was crazy.

"My dad has been giving me gifts. Powerful gifts. One's that I will keep for the rest of my life. A few of the other Olympians are giving me powers as well. That's the reason I can talk to you, even though you're dead."They just stared at me with blank faces. "You don't believe me, do you?"

They looked at each other, and then back at me. "Sorry Percy, but there really is no proof other than the fact that you understand us."

"You want proof? I'll give you proof."

Before I could even decided what I wanted to show them, I sucked some water from the air. It formed into a bubble about the size of my fist. I saw their eyes widen. Then I took that water and formed it into a thin, but unbreakable knife. Then I threw it at the wall where it lodged itself in. I made it form back into water and boiled it until it was nothing but steam. I took the steam and made a small cloud right above me with rain and everything. Lightning flashed and so did thunder. I let the little storm cloud float away into nothing while I created a tiny earthquake. It shook the room enough for everyone but me to lose their balance a little bit.

By the time I noticed that I had shown them more than I had meant to, they were already telling me they believed me.

"Alright Percy! Ok! Ok! We believe you." Beck said, holding onto his head as if it was going to fall off, while Silena was worrying about her hair, showing that she hadn't changed completely.

I quickly stopped the power that I felt ebbing out of me and let everything become still.

"Percy… I have another question." Silena said. "If your father is giving you powers, are there still more that you do not know about yet?"

I nodded. "I know there are some I don't know about yet, but I'm letting them become known as time goes along, I don't want to become overwhelmed by all of them."

"Percy!" I heard a voice call. It sounded like Annabeth. I used my extra sight to look for her, she was heading in my direction. It's like she had this sort of Percy Tracker that let her find me wherever I was.

I turned back to Silena and Beckendorf. "Annabeth's coming. I'm going to have to pretend that I don't understand you."

Silena looked frantic. "Percy, before she comes, you need to know that the one causing the Mist to disappear is the one thrown off of Mt. Olympus. He fell, but something saved him. I'm not sure what, but he was falling and right before he hit the ground, a big air pocket formed around him and he floated the rest of the way. That's all I was able to see before I…" She cut off there. But I knew what she was going to say.

"Thank you Silena." I replied. "You truly do deserve to be here." She smiled.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall. "Oh!" She whispered. "And Percy, one last thing. Take care of Annabeth. She has a secret too that she needs to tell you, but like yours she's going to wait until the time is right." I nodded.

"Thank you. You too Beck. "

Right then Annabeth came around the corner. She looked a little worried until she saw me. He worried look disappeared from her face.

"How did you find me? Was it your extra wisdom?" I teased.

"No, it was common sense. I know you well enough Percy to know that you would get yourself lost in the most complicated building on Isle Blest."

I heard Silena and Beckendorf snicker, and subtly shot them a glare. I crossed my arms. "Well, at least I found what we were looking for." I replied. She looked around the room and once she caught sight of Silena and Beckendorf, she smiled.

"Silena! Beckendorf!" She said. Then her face fell. "They can't understand me, can they?"

"They can understand you, but you can't understand them."

"How do you know?" She asked.

"Nico told me." I lied smoothly. She accepted the answer and turned back to our diseased friends.

"I'm glad you're on Isle Blest. It's good to see you again." They both nodded in reply with a smile, and Silena skipped up to her and gave her a ghostly hug. That's the Silena I once knew.

Beck whispered in my ear. "You don't have much time, remember?" He asked. I nodded and tapped Annabeth's arm.

"We need to go Annabeth, we don't have much time. Sorry Silena. Maybe I can get Nico to bring you up for a little while and we'll both be able to understand each other." She smiled and said "I would like that." Which I'm sure sounded like a bunch of chatter to Annabeth.

Annabeth and I left the hall and I used my extra sight to find Nico leaning against one of the bridge's posts waiting for us.

"Took you long enough." He said.

"Sorry, just playing a little charades with Silena and Beckendorf." I replied with a little hint that I knew what was going on now.

The truth was that I knew who Silena was talking about. I remember his face, a few of our conversations, and that he was loyal to Kronos. I just didn't know his name. And I had a feeling that knowing his name would be the key to solving many problems. Like Mr. D had said the first day I met him :Names had power.

As we started to cross the bridge, several things continued flying across my mind. What new powers did I have? What was this person's name? What secret did Annabeth have? I needed to figure these things out and fast.

**Hey, **_sorry it took_** so long. After I wrote that last one, **I was ordered to clean my room and finish my _homework. Although to tell the truth, I took a _little time for myself so_** I could read a little more of the**_** book and get Percy's character back down. I noticed how he was starting to go a little more OOC **_**lately. **__There's some of that in the story until__** the very end where I had finally got his character back**_** down. I have a few more hours off today so I'm going on a writing rampage with the rest of my **_**stories. Try looking later for the next chapter**__. Hopefully it will be up, if not, then you know I'm doing _my homework.


	29. Chapter 27

_Hey guys, sorry this took so long. My hectic life got in the way. This next rant is to the anonymous __**Billy Bob **__person who cussed me out with ******* the other day in a review because I haven't updated in 2 months. _

_**Look, I know I take a long time, and I know that everybody is getting frustrated with me. I'm trying, that's the most I can do at the moment; so unless you want this story to be really sucky, then I suggest you back off. Or else I will not continue it. If you truly like the story, then you will respect the time and effort I put into it to make it readable material. I hate it when people take forever to update too, but that doesn't mean I piss them of just to get them to write. I won't stand for bad language or inappropriate flamers. **_

_Ok, to the rest of those wonderful reviews! Thank you so much. I love the reviews I get from you. They truly do make me write faster. I want to start writing this faster, but it's difficult. But Christmas Break is right around the corner and I will have tons of time to write. Please Review._

"Took you long enough." Thalia said from her spot next to Ashley when we finally finished crossing the bridge. I noticed how she and Rachel were sitting as far apart as they could get without making it seem obvious that they didn't like each other.

I rolled my eyes and found myself wondering why everyone hated Rachel. It wasn't like she was out to kill anybody.

"Sorry." Annabeth apologized. "Someone decided he was going to play charades with two of our old deceased **A.N.(a shout out to **_**Unknown **_**=) for correcting me on which word to use) **friends."

"Hey! At least I got the information we needed!" I protested. She just shrugged indignantly and turned back to Thalia.

I huffed and crossed my arms before focusing back on the task at hand. "Well, what I did learn during that little _detour_, was that spiteful demigod is the reason for this. I also have a hunch that the Mist is disappearing faster than we thought."

"Then what are we still doing here? Let's go!" Thalia said. I understood how she was feeling. As children of the other members of the Big Three, we didn't like to be out of our element. The only thing that was worse than being out of our element was being in another's. I wanted out of here just as much as she did.

"I agree with Thalia. Let's get out of here." I turned to Nico. "Lead the way."

He nodded and started walking off. Annabeth, Ashley, and Thalia started walking and Rachel pulled out her I-pod. I could hear it from y place next to Nico.

Since we were generally alone, I decided to fill Nico in a bit. "So, I saw Silena and Beckendorf back on the Isle."

"So Silena. Disgraced end. I get it, she was the traitor because she was Luke's spy, but then she left his side to fight against Kronos." He explained things that he was just now understanding. Well, I guess not all of us can have the intelligence of Athena.

Rachel came up and poked me in the arm. I turned and smiled. "What's up?" I asked.

The look on her face told me that something wasn't right.

"I'm getting that feeling again Percy. The Oracle is getting restless and I have a feeling this one's not going to be a good one."

"When are they ever good ones. Ok, we'll hurry and get out of here so that we don't end up getting attacked by monsters." I turned to Nico with pleading eyes. He was the one who created the portal.

"I'm not sure Percy, we could end up anywhere in America; and I mean anywhere."

"Please man? I really don't feel comfortable down here and I can say the same for Thalia."

He sighed in defeat and walked up to the nearest rock. He somehow cut the rock in half without us looking and then he opened the portal.

"Hurry up and go through. We don't want to get stuck here when Rachel has her vision." I said, pulling Rachel to the front of the group so she could go first.

I pushed her through the portal. As soon as I saw that she was through, I let Annabeth go next, then Thalia, then Ashley. Nico made me go next because he had to close the portal.

I quickly made my way through the portal, hoping that I hadn't missed Rachel telling the prophecy, but as soon as I was standing in the middle of the grass field we were in, Rachel was just starting to come out of it.

I turned to everyone who had been there and seen the entire thing. Ashley and Thalia shrugged. "She was already half way through the prophecy when we arrived."

I looked around for Annabeth, and found her a little bit behind me. Her face was pale and the gray streak in her hair was a little bit more defined. She looked frail and like she was about to pass out. I suddenly found myself fearing for her health.

"Wise Girl, are you feeling ok?" I asked her, quickly moving over to her in case she suddenly lost consciousness.

She didn't respond. I put a hand on her shoulder and shook her a little bit. "Annabeth?"

She looked at me with worried gray eyes and nodded a little bit.

"What happened? What did the prophecy say?" I asked as I helped her sit down in the grass.

She started to say something, but her voice cracked and she swallowed. She then tried again.

"_When out from the shadows comes a hairy beast,_

_On the son of power the creature is to feast._

_A true puzzle-solver comes to save,_

_But not without there being a price paid."_

"Why are you so freaked out?" I asked.

She hesitated . "I'm pretty sure that puzzle-solver is me." She replied.

"I'll make sure you're safe." I said. I made the promise not only because I had promised my dad I would, but because I cared about Annabeth. She was my best friend, and I don't know what I would do without her.

I watched the color return to her face. Once she was the normal Annabeth tan again, I helped her up.

"Thanks." She said softly. She was still worried, but she was trying to hide it. Her eyes had that cloudiness to them.

I looked at the rest of the group to see what they were feeling. Nico looked passive; Thalia looked worried about Annabeth; and Ashley looked like she was lost in thought. Rachel's eyes were darting around like she expected a monster to jump out at any moment.

"We should get a move on. Anybody know where we might be?" I asked.

Ashley stuck her hand up. "Judging by the soft grass and the bright sun. I would have to say we are down in the Southern part of the U.S. because where else would it be sunny in the middle of winter? And the way the sun is positioned and the humidity, I would have to say we are somewhere in Florida."

Nobody said anything for a few moments. "I guess you really are the daughter of Athena." Thalia said with a smile. "I doubt if even Annabeth could have figured that out."

Annabeth didn't even try to defend herself, she was nervously looking around. She really _was _frightened by this prophecy.

"Let's go find out what part of Florida we're in. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll run into Chiron's cousins."

Ashley looked puzzled. "Chiron's cousins? Are there centaurs out here? Why would we be lucky to run into them?"

"Most of Chiron's cousins live out here, and even though they are really big partiers, they have good hearts; not to mention they're faster than a bullet train. If we need to go anywhere, then they can give us a ride." I explained.

We started walking nowhere in particular, but soon we heard the buzzing or car engines. We followed that noise until we were on a road. There weren't very many cars going past, but wherever it went, there had to be civilization.

"Percy, can we stop to eat? We're starving." Ashley asked. I nodded and stopped near the edge of the road, just in case a bus willing to drive us somewhere came past.

While we ate, we talked about what we were going to do once we made it to civilization; I had no clue where to go from here. I hoped an idea would hit me soon.

As we were finishing, I heard a noise rustling in the trees behind me. I turned, half expecting to see a crocodile or something coming at us, but it was much worse. Oh, it was so much worse.

The monster that was coming out of the bushes had beady read eyes, teeth that put a unhygienic dog to shame, and I could smell it's rotting meat breath from where I was.

There was no doubt that this creature was none other than Ares, the god of war.

**Hope you enjoyed it, sorry it's short. I had a bit of writers block, but as I was writing it went away. I'm already starting on the next chapter! And to all those Twilight fans out there who aren't afraid of M rated fanfic. I hope you read **_**The Muse in the Attic by hidemyhead. **_**I love the story, and I'm sure you will too. Review!**


	30. Chapter 28

**Hey! So, like I said, I'm trying to go faster in my writing. I really hope that I get back to the pace I was at during summer. Enjoy and review.**

"Who is that?" Ashley whispered, but of course, Ares probably heard her. He snorted and crossed his arms. None of us said anything.

"Well?" Ares asked.

"Well what?" I asked. What was he getting at?

"Aren't you going to answer her runt?" He snapped. I folded my arms and had to keep myself from punching him. Like always, his magic was making me restless to pick a fight, but of course I had to keep myself from doing so. If I picked a fight, I might end up getting turned into one of Ares many leather jackets.

I turned to Ashley. "Ashley, this is lord Ares, god of war." I said. "And an immense jerk." I whispered under my breath.

"Excuse me twerp?" He asked, the flames in his red eyes getting brighter.

"You heard me." I said. Annabeth looked at me disapprovingly, but didn't do anything to stop me. She knew it was impossible to stop me from arguing with Ares. It was one of my many talents.

Ares grunted and turned to Thalia. "Hey twigs, your dad gave me something to pass on to each of you. At first, I thought I would keep them, but none of them work for me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of miniature items.

He handed Thalia a mini lightning bolt. It was about the size of her thumb, and had a metallic tint.

"Um, thanks." She said.

Ares rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. The bolt grew until it was the size of her arm. She looked at it in awe. "It's one of your dad's lesser bolts. He thought that you could use it." She nodded, still looking at the bolt.

Ares handed Annabeth something small as well. It was tiny and made of celestial bronze. "My knife!" She yelled with a huge smile. It was the biggest one I had seen in days.

Ares moved onto Rachel, and gave her one of her many credit cards. "Zeus saw how all your clothes and un-needed possessions were crushed in that car and dug up the credit card, just in case you need it. Which I know you will."

Then to Ashley. "This is from your mother and Zeus." He handed her a whistle with an owl painted on it. "You blow and it clears the minds of all who hear it except the user. Be careful with it, because friends can be affected."

Nico was next. Apparently Ares was holding off dealing with me until the end. Ares handed him a bone. "What am I? A dog?" He said, obviously angered by the fact that the others got things they could use.

Ares frowned and one of the scars on his face turned into his mouth. "It's a type of compass and tracker in one. Set it on the ground and the sharp point will point North; and if you're looking for something, hold it in your hands and think about the object, yes it has to be an in-animate object, and wait. If it grows cold you're getting further away from it, if it gets warm, your closer." Nico looked at the bone before tucking it into his jacket pocket.

Finally Ares turned to me. Grunted and grabbed my arm before dragging me a few paces away. "Hey! Let go of me!" I said trying to pull away but his big meaty hands were too strong. After dragging me a few paces, he wheeled me around to face him.

"Now your gift is what I wish I could have taken the most. I had even gotten ready to pretend I had lost it, but Zeus told me you already had it." Ares folded his arm. "You have a new power. You can control lightning, but in smaller amounts, and it's not the explosives type, it's a point finger and zap kind." He said.

I pulled out my beanie from my pocket and stuck it on my head, then uncapped Riptide. The beanie changed into Cyclone and I tried the point finger and zap thing at the ground so nobody but Ares and I saw it. It hit the ground and the grass caught fire. I quickly doused it with the water from the air.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face. 'See Zeus, it's not that hard to like me.' I thought.

I heard a rumble from somewhere in the distance, and I quickly apologized in my mind.

"You understand now runt? Good. 'Cause you ain't getting that taken away from you anytime soon and we wouldn't want you zapping people in the anus's when they aren't looking." I nodded. "oh, and one more thing. The only path that will lead you the right way, starts with Sea world." With that, he started to turn gold, so I turned away. When I turned back, he was gone.

I went and joined the rest of the group. They all looked at me as if I just survived a stampede of rhinos.

"What did Ares ask about?" Annabeth asked. "Did he threaten you with your own life?"

"No, actually he just gave me some information that might help. He said that the next part of the quest starts at the only place on the planet that stars a giant killer whale."

"Sea World?" Ashley asked.

"Yep." I said. Then I started to walk off down the road.

"Where are you going?" Thalia asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to Sea World. I'm ready for this quest to end and the faster that we travel, then the less time there is until it's over." I replied. They all started following me.

Everybody was talking about the gifts they got from Ares/Zeus. I, on the other hand was too busy practicing sending little shocks through my hands. It was kind of like the static you got on your hands when you went down the plastic swirly slide at the park, but it wasn't quite as uncomfortable.

"Hey Percy?" Annabeth asked putting a hand on my shoulder. She immediately took it off yelling out in shock. "OW!"

"What happened?" Thalia asked.

"Something shocked me!" Annabeth said.

"By touching Percy?" She asked. Next, of course being the group we were, Nico touched me next while I tried to get my new power under control.

"OW! He shocked me too!"

Then in went downhill from there. Next Ashley tried and then Rachel, but when Thalia tried, she didn't feel anything; but that could have something to do with the fact that she was the daughter of Zeus and she was electricity-proof.

"Why is everybody getting shocked by you Percy?" Annabeth asked.

Nico looked at me suspiciously and I passed him a small nod hoping that he caught it. "I'm not sure. I think it might have something to do with the fact that my clothes are cotton or because Ares was just here." She looked at me.

"Percy. You're lying. You've been lying to me for a few days now. I can tell, and I'm getting tired of it. Just tell me what's going on." I became very distressed in that one moment.

"Annabeth-."

"NO PERCY! Please… just tell me what's going on." She asked in a heartbreaking tone.

"Annabeth… I…can't." I sighed heavily while the others watched on. I took Annabeth's hand and pulled her away from the group so we could talk in private. When I turned back to her, her face was bright red.

"Annabeth, I know you're mad, but please just hear me out… you know that secret that I couldn't tell you back at camp? This is part of the same secret. I can't tell you until the time is right, and that time has yet to come."

"But you will tell me the moment you know it's right? She asked.

"The very first." I promised. She smiled and then something over my shoulder caught her attention. Her face scrunched up into fear.

"Oh my gods." She whispered under breath.

I turned around quickly and saw something with giant hairy black legs coming out of the forest. Here we go again. **Please read below.**

**Please review. For Christmas? And I plan on writing a short one-shot for Christmas for you guys.**


	31. NOT A CHAPTER

**NOT A CHAPTER!**

**Hey. I truly am really sorry. I lost interest in the story for a little while. So, like most good writers, I set down everything and went to take a few weeks as a break from all of the writing. I realized I was trying to force creativity, and we all know that doesn't work; it just makes everything worse. So I went out and read more stories, listened to music and watched so movies to get new ideas. When I finally came to TLT, I read through the entire chapter in less than 5 minutes. I've got my inspiration back. **

**I just wanted to apologize for not telling you of my struggles earlier and that it might take me a bit longer until the next chapter so I can skim through the first book and remind myself of what I had to put down. I won't give up in this story, all of you have been so understanding and supportive and I want to do everything I can to make you happy. **

**P.S. (and I'm sorry about the Christmas one-shot, I completely forgot about it. I will make it up to you all eventually)**


	32. Chapter 29

**Hey everybody. I'm seriously sooooo sorry. I feel so ashamed of myself for not keeping up in my writing. I have a small case of writer's block, and I was studying for finals, but that's no excuse. I am forcing myself to write. You guys all deserve it for waiting this long for this next chapter. I understand if you don't review this chapter if you're mad at me. That's all I have to say. But I finally got some ideas coming to my head again! Finally!**

Annabeth stood and we watched at the hairy, greasy leg exited the edge of the clearing. I immediately jumped to conclusions.

"The minotaur? Again?" I asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "The Minotaur has never come back this fast before. Well, actually, only once has he actually done that. When he was given the power to do so, along with that fact that with that power comes other things. Like strength, wisdom, agility… there could be a chance that it's something else, but I doubt it."

"Well, I destroyed this thing once, without any training I might add, using only my bare hands. How hard could it be _with _the training?" I asked.

Just then, I heard what sounded like an army calling out a battle cry. Startled, we all looked over to where we thought the Minotaur had just exited and instead found a charging line of Telakines. **(Is that how you spell it?)**

"What are those things?" Ashley asked.

"Telekines," Annabeth and I replied at the same time as we drew our weapons.

"Once again, what are those things?"

I sighed and gave her a quick description. "Evil otter type monsters that are fire-resistant and bent on destroying me," I said. She accepted that answer and drew her own weapon. Nico, Rachel and Thalia got ready to fight as well.

"Thalia, Rachel, you take care of the ones with the actual weapons . Annabeth, Nico, you two will help me with others. If they have any kind of fire with them whatsoever, stay away from them. I'll take care of those ones," I said. They nodded and we entered the fray.

Telekines were everywhere and so far, we hadn't seen any with fire; but I just knew that there would be. They always had fire around.

I wacked and took out a few, and then looked behind me to check on everybody else. They were doing fine. While I wasn't looking, I felt something hard and cold hit me in the chest. I looked down and saw that one of the Telakines had tried to stab me.

"Big mistake," I said and sliced through him. I felt a little sting in the place where I would have potentially gotten killed, and just knew that I had a bruise there now. But it wasn't bad. It's a good thing that I had my invincibility.

There was a scream and I turned just in time to see Ashley hit in the leg. I jumped and destroyed the telekine that had done it.

"Ashley, are you ok?" I asked. She was holding her leg in a vise grip; but even so, I saw the blood dripping out of in between her fingers. I sucked in a breath, there was a lot of blood leaving her body.

"I'm fine; just destroy the rest of them." She winced, but waved me off with a free hand. I reluctantly continued fighting through the frenzy of telakines. I knew that if Ashley, Thalia and Annabeth weren't here, I would defeat them no problem with my new gifts. I just didn't know how to get them away.

But I remembered Ashley injured and lying on the floor only a few feet behind me. I probably wouldn't get Thalia away, but I could get Annabeth and Ashley. Plus, I think it was safe to tell Thalia. It kind of irritated me that I felt safe to tell Thalia, but not Annabeth. But I guess it was the rules, and since I didn't feel like being turned into something by one of the gods, then I guess I had to listen.

I turned quickly and spotted Annabeth fighting off to my right. "Annabeth!" I called to get her attention. She looked over after making sure that she was in the clear. She fought her way closer and we started fighting back to back while we spoke. "I need you to take Ashley to safety." I said.

"No Percy. I need to help in this fight. Why can't you get Nico or Thalia to do it?"

I sighed, she wasn't going to give in easy. But there was one thing that she was missing. "Because the three of us are children of the Big Three and she's technically your sister. She would feel safer with you," I said. She hesitated. "Plus, you might get chased. That would give you a chance to help us," I said. Her lips thinned out into a straight line as she was thinking.

She looked at Ashley, then at the rest of the fight before nodding her head and going to help Ashley. They managed to get away right before the telakines started throwing lava.

Nico, Thalia and I were backed up into the middle of the battle fighting and dodging lava. There was no place for us to go.

"What do we do now Percy?" Thalia asked.

I sighed, there really was no holding back my powers anymore. "Thalia, whatever happens, don't tell Annabeth and Ashley what I can do unless I die," I bargained. Thalia looked confused, but nodded.

With her agreement, I stepped out of our small group and started charging the wall of telakines, the lava not burning me at all. Sure, my clothes were now smoldering, but I was physically unharmed. I used the new lighting talent to zap a few into dust, then I pulled water out of the air around their heads, suffocating them. They were dropping like flies. There were only a handful left when I came upon one certain telakine. His eyes were burning with hatred.

"Son of the sea-god, we meet again." Apparently, this was one of the telakines that I had faced in the volcano.

"Why did you come here? What do you want with us?" I asked. The creature just laughed and brought forward what looked like a big bucket of red gloop. I knew instantly it was lava. "Why even try harming me with that? I'm the son of Poseidon and I've taken a dip in the River Styx."

"Very true Perseus, but this lava isn't just normal lava. Before this became molten rock, this was rock fished from the River Styx. We harvested it and mixed it with the lava in the volcano. After melting it, we collected it into separate pots and stored it away in a separate lava pool. This lava, Perseus is about as invincible as you, and can do you some real damage," He laughed.

I found his story hard to believe, but as soon as he threw his first fist-full of the lava, and it hit my foot, I knew he wasn't lying. I felt my skin burning and shook the lava off to reveal what looked like melted shoe. The skin underneath was red.

"HA! You need to move young hero. Or you will be killed!" I moved just in time to dodge another fistful.

As I was busy playing "Dodge the Lava" I realized that the creature didn't know of my extra powers. I smiled involuntarily as I shot a small bolt of electricity at the bucket, causing it to bounce and spill its contents all over the ground.

I then slashed Riptide down upon all the telakines but the leader. It was just me and it.

"You've been training," He stated.

"My entire life consists of training, it would be weird to stop after a seemingly finished war," I replied.

Just as he lunged at me with his last handful of lava, I used an old trick picked up from a Nyiad. 'the water from within' she called it. Water spurted up from the ground with such force that it immediately sliced through one of his legs and arms. Then I quickly froze the blast of water, keeping him in place.

He growled. "How?"

I shrugged. "I know a person," was my easy reply. I wasn't giving away any secrets to my enemies. That was the last thing I said before slashing Riptide through him.

Thalia came up to me after I had cleaned up the big mess. "How did you do all those things? Even with the lightning?"

I didn't want to stay here in case something else happened, but I didn't want to tell Thalia the same excuse I told Annabeth.

"Let's walk and talk. Come on Nico." I called to my other cousin from his place in the shade of a tree. He slowly but surely caught up to us.

"It started with a letter…"

ero


	33. Chapter 30

**Sorry I've taken so long. I lost interest in the story for a little while, but I am determined not to quit the story, I decided just to take another break. With summer here, I'll have more time to update. So, here's the next chapter. Enjoy, and review. No flames please, I know I've taken a long time, but I'm trying. I did not make up the Amphisbaena. **

Thalia was a good listener. She didn't interrupt me once and let me tell my story all the way through. Only at the end of me detailed description of what happened did she start asking questions. I answered all of them truthfully, while all she did was nod.

"You have to promise not to tell anybody, only you, me and Nico know."

"I promise Percy. Now I know why you couldn't let Annabeth know. You were trying to keep a secret your father told you to keep. It's not easy."

"Thank you Thalia." I replied. We continued walking for a while before we began to worry about Annabeth and Ashley. We couldn't find any sign of them anywhere. After another half hour, we found armor and weapons strewn all over the place. I was guessing that Annabeth and Ashley had been followed and were forced to fight. I only found the armor and weapons, so I was guessing that Annabeth and Ashley had won and had run off somewhere.

"Where do you think they went?" Nico asked.

"I'm not sure, maybe they continued on to Sea World?" I replied.

"That's our best bet at the moment, I suggest we just get going and find out." Thalia said.

"Wait! Where's Rachel?" Nico asked.

We looked around, but none of us saw the crazy red-head.

"Great, just great! We lose the only one of us that can give us a little insight to what might happen!" As Thalia started ranting, Nico started getting angry. Things were just getting worse.

"Thalia! Rachel can make her own choices! I'm sure she can handle herself just fine and she's probably already halfway to SeaWorld with the other two! Just give it a rest!"

"Why are you standing up for her? You know that Rachel likes him and it's just making things harder on Annabeth!" Thalia quickly covered her mouth and her eyes grew wide while Nico's mouth hung open.

Curiosity bubbled up inside of me, but what I felt the most was a pang in my chest that hurt more than anything that I had felt in the past year. "Who does Annabeth like?" I asked.

They both looked at each other, both looking a little uneasy. "Nico, I think our dear cousin here just proved how much Seaweed his brain is made up of."

I became even more confused and curious. "I guess you can tell me later, we need to hurry."

We found a bus station not too far from where we were at and waited for a few minutes before we saw the exhaust. We stood to wait.

I got a sudden chill when I saw the bus come into view. Thalia noticed.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, I just got a chill. It might be because I've had a lot of bad experiences with busses."

I boarded first. "Does this bus go anywhere near Sea World?" I asked the driver. He was a creepy looking old man with food in his beard and slicked back greasy hair. I had to force myself not to gag when I smelled his breath.

"It does actually. That's our next stop." He smiled, and his gray and yellow teeth showed. I did gag a little that time, but managed to turn away from him so he didn't see. When I turned back to thank him, his eyes were completely black. If I got a chill before I got on the bus, it was nothing compared to the chill I got then.

"Percy, sit down so the man can drive." Thalia said. I sat on my own seat and turned to look at them both on the other.

"I don't think that man is human."

"What do you mean? Like, he's a monster?" Thalia asked.

"I think he might be. Just keep your eyes open and your weapons ready."

It took a total of 3 minutes before the driver slammed on the breaks, stood and looked at all of us with his beady black eyes. A few of the other passengers started breathing deeply, and somewhere near the back of the bus, a baby started crying.

"Demigods! You will die!" He suddenly yelled. That's when the people started screaming. Many of them tried to open the emergency exits, but they wouldn't budge. I took out Riptide and got ready for the battle that was sure to come.

I expected a battle with this guy, but what I didn't expect was for him to drop to the ground and have 10 snakes slither out of his clothes. Not just regular snakes either, these ones had a head on each end and had double legs right in the middle like a claw table.

"Amphisbaena!" Thalia yelled.

"What?" I yelled back, swinging at one. It dodged and ducked under a seat.

"Ancient snake creatures; formed when Perseus carried Medusa's bleeding head across the Libyan desert. The blood formed into-" she struck at a head that snapped at her. "These things and they have been coming back to attack demigods ever since."

"How do we get rid of them?"

"Chop their heads off, but they're harder to dispose of than you may think. Tough skin, and lightning fast reflexes are what make these things so dangerous."

We stabbed at a few of them before I remembered that the passengers were still on the bus watching on with frightened faces.

"Nico, get the people off the bus. Before any of them get hurt." He dropped his weapons and went to get the doors open.

We fought rigorously for quite some time before I started getting really irritated with these things. I had spent the majority of the fighting time trying to figure out which power would work best for these things, but was having trouble focusing and fighting at the same time.

"Percy! Use a power! I'm dying here." Thalia yelled. Nico had, only minutes before, faded into a shadow in the back of the bus to rest. He was dangerously close to passing out from the heat. I was going to need water soon as well.

"I can't. I'm trying to figure things out, but my mind is getting too fogged. I need to either-" I swung at one and I nicked it in one of its legs. "Take a break, or get some larger source of water soon. The water in the air is not going to cut it."

Without another word, Thalia reached into her bag and pulled out a water bottle. She held it out from her side of the bus while she tried to fight away two of the Amphisbaena.

I willed to water over to me and the entire bottle floated into my waiting fingers. With one hand I fought the monsters while I used my powers to open the bottle that was in the other. Once I had it open I was getting ready to pour it on me when one of the things struck, bit the bottle and yanked it out of my hands. This made the water fly every which way.

That was when Thalia fell back and sat in a corner behind her shield. There were just too many, and she thought that I had managed to get the water on me, so she fell back. Now they were all coming for me and I was backed into a bus seat. What was I going to do now?

**(I was going to end it there, but you guys deserve more from suffering through the long wait)**

There was nowhere to go, there were too many, and there was no way I was going to be able to fight them all off at the same time without getting bit. I was about to retreat when I heard a battle cry from the entrance of the bus. Annabeth and Ashley came running in weapons at the ready. The monsters were distracted, so I willed the water to come towards me. It re-energized me and I was able to chop all their heads off with several swift swings.

"Why is it that these things always seem to happen on buses?" Annabeth asked.

I was so relieved to see her and Ashley safe. I tackled her with a hug and she squeezed back.

"How did you find us?" I asked.

"Easy, I just followed the path of destruction you three left. I mean really? Burnt grass, broken armor, not to mention the scrapes in the ground you made when you dragged your weapons. I followed them all the way to the bus stop and followed this bus route until we encounters screaming passengers from a bus they said was 'snake infested'. I asked them where and they pointed us in this direction and here we are." She said.

"Is Rachel with you guys?" I asked. Thalia groaned, Nico slapped his forehead and Annabeth crossed her arms and frowned. She didn't look happy that I had brought her up.

"No, she's not. I thought she was with you. "

"Great, she's disappeared. Now we have to find her. Why don't things work in our favor?" I asked the skies, hoping somebody would answer me.

Thalia spoke up. "Percy, we don't have the time to go looking for her. What would you rather have happen: You go to find Rachel and the entire world dies, or you save the world and Rachel is missing?"

Nico came out from his shadow, making Ashley jump 3 feet in the air. "I think we should look for Rachel."

We all looked at him like he had three heads. "You want to find Rachel?" Thalia asked.

"She is a big part of this group."

It was my turn to voice my opinion, since my opinion decided the vote. "I think… that Rachel…" Annabeth looked hurt and I didn't like that expression on her face. Why did she hate Rachel so much? "Can wait." Annabeth's face brightened considerably, but still looked slightly troubled.

"Let's hurry up and get to Sea World." Thalia said.


	34. Not Giving Up on This Story!

**Author's Note: **

**Urgent**

**Hey everybody, I'm not dead. But my grandpa is. That's the reason I haven't updated in so long. This isn't the same grandpa that was sick a few months ago, this was my perfectly healthy, strong as an ox, war veteran of a Grandpa. He was taken to the hospital when he suddenly started getting stomach pains and they said it was nothing too serious. It was memorial day weekend; Ironic that he would die on that weekend, huh? They then found that he had Leukemia , which only a few months before a doctor said that he might have but also said it was not likely. They said they could help him, but it was going to be a long process. Only 3 hours later, he went into a coma and at 12:00-12:10 a.m the next day, he passed away with my aunt, uncle and grandma in the room, while we were stuck two states away. This was also finals week for me and I had to go to school the next day. So I hope you understand that I've been a bit pressured since then. I'll have the next chapter up soon. It's halfway finished. Thanks for reading, and thanks to all of you who have kept with the story through all that's happened. .BEASTXx**


	35. Chapter 31

**Guess who's back! ME! I'm so happy to announce that I have recovered fully from everything that has happened this past year and am ready to continue on with the story! I might not be updating as fast pace as I was before, but you won't have to wait 7+ months anymore. I want to thank all of you who have stuck with me through everything and sent me all those wonderful empowering messages. It's good to have people out there who don't know me, but care just the same. So Thank You so much! Here's the next chapter. **

As we were making our way to Sea world, I got lost in my own thoughts. So far, the quest has dragged us along to many different places, where we've been attacked, taken care of, and attacked again. The prophecy continued popping up in my head over and over.

"_A group of 6 shall travel west, to the majesty called isle blest." _We've done that, and it was probably the easiest part of the quest so far.

"_There they shall meet a blinded friend, who once had met a disgraced end" _Did that.

"_The cursed one's fate shall be revealed, and relationships of broken hearts shall heal". _Now that was part of the prophecy we haven't come to face yet, unless the cursed one is Rachel, which it very well could be. But then, what did relationships of broken hearts shall heal mean?

"Percy?" I looked up to see Annabeth and Ashley holding a map, Thalia trying to drown out all noise not concerning her, and Nico looking at me expectantly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any hint to why Annabeth hates Rachel?"

"I always thought it was because I've had to cancel a few things with Annabeth to go hang out with Rachel." He shook his head.

"I really hope you figure things out soon Percy, or things are going to get really messed up." I pretended that what he said didn't bug me.

We continued walking in silence until a thought occurred to me. "Nico, why have you been defending Rachel so much lately? I thought you weren't a big fan of her. Everybody else seems to hate her."

He looked away. "She's not as bad as I thought."

He was hiding his face from me, and his hands kept on clenching and unclenching. Almost as if he was keeping a secret…

I smiled as I figured everything out on my own for once. "You like her, don't you." I saw his skin start to turn a fiery red, as if it were going to catch fire any second. It was a possibility considering who his father is.

"No, of course not!" He defended. I smiled even bigger.

"You do!" My cousin liked one of my friends, that's not weird at all… Let's not mention the 3 year age difference.

"Out of everybody in this group, how is it possible for _you_ to be the one to figure this out?" He groaned, his head in his hands.

"Hey, it's alright, I won't tell anybody. And I'm sorry we don't have the time to look for Rachel." I had this weird feeling in my gut, like guilt. For not telling him about "The cursed one fate" thing. But he seemed to pick up on it.

"She's not dead Percy. I would know if she were dead. I am the son of the king of the underworld, remember?"

"I believe you."

After another few minutes of walking in silence, he turned back to me. "You're not mad are you?"

"About what?"

"About me liking Rachel?"

"Of course not! Why would I be?" He honestly thought I would be mad at him for liking my friend. Was he insane?"

"I don't know, it just kind of seems like you like her."

"Nico, Rachel's a friend. She helped me save Annabeth. Several times. And me on even more occasions. And I think that deserves a bit of recognition. She's my best mortal friend."

"You know, I think that 'gift of wisdom' thing that Athena gave you is starting to kick in". He teased.

"Pfft, that kicked in long ago, you just didn't pay enough attention to notice it."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

"Are you two done with you cousin-bonding thing, or should we just let you two hug it out for a few minutes?" Thalia asked.

"You could join in Thalia." I joked, but all she did was roll her eyes. That's when I assumed it would be best to catch up with them so we could get to Sea World before nightfall.

"So how are we going to get in and stay in without getting caught?" Ashley asked.

We were on the beach near the amusement park, trying to figure out a plan to get in there undetected.

"We could always hide in the bathroom?" I suggested.

"And there it goes." Nico whispered from beside me, I just sent him a glare.

"I'm a huntress, I could always sneak in myself and when I'm sure that it's empty, I can let you in."

Annabeth gave Thalia a sad look. "I doubt a huge place like this isn't going to have overnight security. But that's a good back-up plan."

"May I point something out?" Ashley asked.

We all nodded at her. "We're on a beach, trying to get into a water park, meanwhile we have a son of Poseidon standing right next to us."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"You know, she has a point." Nico added.

"Ok then, let's see what Percy can come up with." Thalia folded her arms and they all turned to me.

"Well, I can make a giant bubble and we can walk underwater to one of the tanks? Or I can make a kind of water elevator to lift us over the gates?"

"Both are very good ideas, but which one is more secretive?" Annabeth asked.

"The underwater one."

"Alright then. When it starts to get dark, then we'll start to head down." She said. We were all getting ready to make a small (hopefully legal) camp-fire so we could make dinner when I heard a familiar voice in my head.

"_Percy." _

I looked around, trying to see if anybody had said or heard anything, but they were all doing what they had before.

"_The water. You'll know where to go from there."_

I stood, catching the attention of the rest of the group. "I'll be right back." I said, turning towards the water and walking in without hesitation.

The voice was right, as soon as I was fully in, I knew where to go, and I knew who I was going to meet. As soon as she was in sight, she was talking to me.

"Do you remember me Percy?" She asked.

"Of course. You're the Nereid that helped me on my first quest. I want to thank you for that by the way."

"It was the least I could do." She smiled lightly, "Do you know why I have called you to me once again?" I shook my head. "I came to help you on your quest."

"Really, you don't have to do that. I'm sorry if my father had to ask you to."

"Your father did not send me, Percy. He allowed me."

"Allowed you? As in, you asked him if you could help us?" I asked in disbelief.

She smiled once again. "I have watched you grow Percy. You have become more of a cousin to me then even the Sea Prince himself." I felt the water grow a bit cooler, but then I quickly changed back to normal. "I think that many of the other sea spirits and river spirits would agree." She paused and a mischievous smile appeared on her face as she looked around and whispered to me. "I believe even Poseidon would agree sometimes."

I laughed, but quickly stopped when I felt the water begin to cool again. "Do not worry Percy, the Sea Prince cannot do anything to you without your father's permission. He can only frighten you with meaningless threats. His sense of humor is nothing like your father's."

After she told me a bit more why she chose to help me, she told me the real reason she chose now to join. "On the other side of that fence, one of our forge-masters is being held."

"Forge-master?"

"A Cyclops, and your red-haired friend is in there as well. They are being held by Telekhines and something much more powerful. I could not get in alone to help, that is why I waited for you. Poseidon told me Ares sent you this way."

"He did." I said, now really worried about Rachel. A Cyclops could take care of itself, no matter how young it was, but Rachel was mortal… sort of. Not only that, but if anything happened to her, I don't think Nico would be very happy.

I told her our plan and she agreed to do as much as she could to help.

I came out of the water completely dry as I was turning dark. They all looked at me expectantly and I told them what was happening.

"A Nereid?" Ashley asked.

"A Sea Spirit. A lot of them have places on my father's council. Maybe you'll see her tonight when we're down there.

"Rachel's being held captive?" Nico asked, trying his best not to sound too worried.

"We'll get her back." I assured.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get a move on." Annabeth said standing up and brushing the sand off her pants. She didn't look too happy about going to rescue Rachel, she looked more like she wanted to get this over with.

The rest of us followed and start to pack up. I inhaled two grilled cheese sandwiches that had somehow been made without a pan and downed one of the cans of soda Annabeth had gotten from a beach vender before I put the fire out. Then we headed down to the water.

"Everybody ready?" I asked. They all nodded before I made a giant bubble and we all started to walk.

"I thought I should let you know that the deeper we go, the darker it going to get and the more pressure you're going to feel."

We continued getting deeper and deeper. I could see and hear perfectly fine but I could hear scuffling and tripping from behind me. I was about to take Riptide out to let the faint glow light up the area a bit for them, but I was beat to it when I saw a bright light form coming straight for is.

"What's that?" Thalia asked.

"The Nereid." I said simply.

The Nereid stopped right next to us and formed from a giant glowing bubble to a glowing form.

She smiled at all of us and turned to me, her mouth didn't move when she spoke to me. "Would you like me to lead the way?" I nodded and she started floating off slowly with us trailing quietly behind.

"What did she say?" One of the girls asked.

"She going to lead the way for us."

Another ten minutes passed and we were beginning to run out of air. I had left the bubble to save some oxygen for the other when we finally came to a gate. The Nereid opened it without any problems and we all went inside. We were inside the Dolphin tank, they kept on coming over to look at us curiously until I had to politely ask them to stop.

As soon as we surfaced at the top, I heard a loud whimper and my eyes widened. It couldn't be. There was no possible way.

"Percy, it that who I think it is?" Annabeth asked. Her eyes almost as wide as mine.

"Unfortunately, I think it is."

"Who is it?" Ashley asked.

My voice lowered a little when I heard another whimper.

"Tyson."

**Review Please**


	36. Chapter 32

**And the story is beginning to wind down! Please Review.**

"Who's Tyson?" Ashley asked.

"My favorite Cyclops brother." I replied quietly, and then Tyson's whimpering stopped.

"Why'd he stop?" Thalia asked.

We were answered when a giant green dragon swooped down at us spewing flames from his mouth.

"DUCK!" I yelled, pushing Annabeth under the water while I quickly followed, barely missing the flames. I felt the heat of the fire making the water boil and I desperately tried to cool the water before we turned into Demigod soup.

When the brightness of the flame died down, I resurfaced to a large cloud of steam that was thick enough to cut with a knife. I needed to find the others, and I couldn't do that when I can't see two feet in front of my face. Not wanting to yell to the others for fear that whoever was attacking us would hear me, I did the next best thing. I ducked under the water and looked around. Annabeth, Nico and Thalia were looked around trying to find the others, but they couldn't see under water as well as I could. Ashley was nowhere to be found.

Quickly, I swam over to the other side of the tank, pulling the others with me as I passed them and we surfaced. I heard a loud scream that I identified as Ashley's, but the steam hadn't dissipated yet. It was almost thick enough to swim in.

_Wait… swim in?_

"Everybody, spread out!" When none of them were paying attention, I opened Riptide and jumped, hoping that my plan would work. It did! I was swimming in the cloud of steam! I swam up to the very top of the cloud and made a little path for me to see through it. I easily found the dragon, and staring right into its bright green eyes was none other than Ashley. Unfortunately, before I could do anything, Annabeth saw the predicament she was in.

"ASHLEY!" Annabeth yelled, pulling out her weapon and making a run for them. She was going for the dragon's throat, but before she could make it there, the tail came around and slammed her into a large rock on the side of the tank where she dropped her weapon and went under.

I waited for her to come back up, but when she didn't, I began to worry. I jumped from my place in the steam and just as I was about to hit the water, the dragon's tail hit me as well, throwing me across the tank to Nico and Thalia.

"Where's the Nereid? And Tyson and Rachel?" Thalia asked when I stood.

"I don't know! But we can't worry about them right now. We need to save Ashley and Annabeth!"

One of the dolphins came around and nudged me in the back, in the one place I can actually get hurt. It wasn't painful, quite the opposite, and I couldn't stop myself from letting out a loud laugh. Thalia looked over at me incredulously.

"How are you laughing at a time like this, Percy!"

I turned to the dolphin. She was looking at me with wise eyes. With a few squeaks and a pop, she let me know that she wanted to help.

I nodded. 'Get the girl that fell in on the other side of the tank, take her to safety.' The dolphin flipped its tail and was off.

I turned back to the others "Annabeth's being taken care of, we need to help Ashley."

Nico nodded and then disappeared into a shadow. Thalia shot her arrow, missing the dragon by a centimeter. Letting out a steady stream of mumbled curses, she shot one after the other; most of them bouncing off the hard scales.

I had had enough of this dragon. If it was going to keep us from reaching out goal, then I was going to have to deal with it, giving it all I have.

"Thalia, can you distract it?"

She nodded and went off, shooting at the dragon's eyes every chance she got.

I had to think of a plan and fast. If only there was some way that I could tap into the battle strategies and such that Athena had somehow etched into my brain. _Maybe if I use Cyclone… but that's for understanding the powers, not for getting information. Maybe if… I'm so confused._

"Percy! Don't just stand there! Do something! I'm doing the best I can at distracting and all you're doing is standing there with a stupid look on your face!"

A plan then suddenly popped into my mind, and I went for it.

Pushing and pulling the water to my will, I made a kind of shell around my legs and pushed myself forward. Concentrating on making the force stronger and stronger as I go closer to the dragon, I planned on slamming a wall of water into it so hard that it would go flying. Ashley was still standing completely still, not moving at all, and the dragon seemed to be easily fighting the others with just its tail.

Just as I was about to slam into the dragon, Nico appeared out of the shadows, and swung a giant sword, looking as if it had been made out of literal shadows. Unfortunately, when it hit the dragon's neck, it was deflected and melted into the night, leaving Nico completely open.

The dragon, once again, swung its tail and hit Nico, sending him right at me. "Percy! Watch out!" He yelled, trying his best to move. I tried to stop the wall of water with all my might. We still ended up hitting into each other and falling into the shallow water below.

Nico was the only one groaning in pain, but I was still a bit shaken from the fact that I had been stopped mid-attack by my own cousin.

"I'm going to try that again. Help Thalia to distract that thing!"

"You're going to try to use the same attack twice! He stopped you the first time, what makes you think that he won't his time?"

"Because this time I have a different plan."

"PERCY!" Somebody bellowed from the platform over the tank. I looked up to see Tyson with a broken chain cuffs in his hands. "I'm free! I can help!" He had a huge smile on his face and I couldn't stop the one that spread across mine.

"Tyson! I'm glad you're ok! Yeah, you can help big guy!"

He took out what looked like a velvet bag, and nodded at me, letting me know that he was ready to fight.

"Go Nico!"

He disappeared into another shadow and re-appeared in front of the dragon.

Tightening my hand around Riptide, I built up the wave "Ok. I hope this works."

I did the same exact thing that I had done last time, except this time, I went over the dragon instead of at him. Just as I was about to finish the plan off, I froze. I mean literally froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, and I was extremely cold. What had happened to me? I could see below me, the fight was still going on, but the wave I had been creating was also still.

Almost as if…

'_Crap.'_

**Let me know what you think. =) The more reviews I get, the more motivated, trust me. It seems that's my only way of motivation, I've tried everything else… **


	37. Chapter 33

**Yay! Two Chapters, one week! I love winter break. :)**

How was it possible to be stopped mid-attack two times in a row? Scratch that. How is it possible to be frozen in a giant wall of ice mid-attack? Was there even a type of monster that could do that? I know I didn't do this to myself, and I know that the dragon didn't do this, so who did?

Here I was, stuck in a giant wall of ice. I wasn't able to breathe or move, yet I was I was still able to think perfectly clear about how I was probably going to freeze to death. My fingers and face were already getting numb. I was sure that I was stuck here any longer, I would either die of air-deprivation or hypothermia.

I had to think of a way to get out of here, and quickly. I could melt it, because in order to do that, I had to be able to move my arms. I couldn't just turn myself into water either because there was no way for me to escape.

I suddenly became aware of a thudding coming from below me and I looked to see Tyson pounding on the base of the wall. 'I'll help my brother!' I didn't have time to freak out about hearing his thoughts before remembering that we were both sons of Poseidon, therefore we were able to talk to other creatures of the sea. 

'What happened!' I asked. 

'Accidentally froze you! Sorry Percy!' I ignored the fact that his English had gotten slightly better, and focused on the part where he said that he had been the one to freeze me. 

'What do you mean you accidentally froze me?'

He went into this very long apology that was too complicated for me to understand. He would have to tell me if I ever got out of here.

By now, I had almost run out of air, and everything around me was starting to get fuzzy. I desperately needed a way out, and Tyson was not helping much. Another plan popped in my head, and I immediately put it into action. It was my only chance left. 

'Tyson, back up!'

He moved out of the way, and as soon as I was sure that he was out of the danger zone, I gathered up what air I had left and yelled the loudest I could.

I watched as everybody below me tried to keep their feet, but failed as they all fell into the water, or to their knees. Even the dragon was thrown off balance, but neither him or Ashley were broken out of their trance.

The ice started shaking and cracking loudly. I added one last effort into the yell, and the ice shattered. I took in gulps of air and immediately melted the shard of ice, pushing all the water into one form and freezing it once again. In an effort to do some damage to the dragon, I swung the giant ice block at him and he was sent toppling over while I landed safely back into the water. 

"PERCY!" I looked over to see Tyson giving me a thumbs up. 

"Percy." I heard somebody else call and I turned to see Ashley looking at me with a solemn expression, then back at the dragon. "Don't interfere, please. I'm the girl in the prophecy."

By now, I was utterly confused. But before I could ask what she meant, a vision started playing in my mind.

_Ashley was about 3 or 4. She was sitting on a swing out in her back yard just staring out at the park behind her house. She could hear her step-mom and dad arguing in the kitchen and hoped that they would make up soon. She didn't like it when they argued over what they were going to do about her next. As she was about to get up to go back inside, a large shape came flying over-head. A large green dragon. With a scream, she ran to the cover of one of the trees, but the dragon had already spotted her._

_It landed in front of her and stared her in the eyes. His eyes held evil, and understanding. As if it wasn't happy with why it was there. Ashley stood and grabbed a big stick from the ground. _

"_Don't come any closer!" She yelled. The dragon didn't move, but instead started talking in her head. _

'_It's not time for our battle yet little demigod. But it was come sooner than you think.'_

"_Leave my head alone!"_

'_When the time does come for our fight, you will have people you need to protect. People you will want to protect. But if they are to interfere with the final blow, then all of you will perish.'_

_With that, the dragon flew away, leaving a very frightened and confused little girl sitting in the grass under the tree. As soon as the dragon was out of sight, she ran quickly into the house, tears streaming down her face. _

"_Daddy! There was a monster outside! A big dragon! He told me we were going to fight in the future!" She said hugging his leg tightly._

"_It was just a dream Ash, you probably fell asleep outside underneath the tree. Don't worry, it wasn't real." He said patting the top of her head._  
_And just like that, the entire incident was forgotten. _

'_I guess it was true then.' Ashley thought._

The vision ended and I noticed that Ashley didn't look phased. Instead, she looked just the same as she had. I realized that it hadn't been her putting thoughts in my head, but instead it was me stealing thoughts from her head. It then realized what was going to happen next.

Ashley turned to me one last time. "Thank you." She said before she turned back to the dragon. He opened his giant maw and lunged. She had just enough time to stick her sword up parallel and crouch before she disappeared into the flaming, tooth-filled mouth.

As she disappeared, the tip of the sword re-appeared from in between the dragon's two eyes. She had successfully sent the sword through the dragon's brain. As soon as it happened there was an explosion of dust, and they were both gone. There was no trace of either of them, or of the fight that had just ensued.

_The Cursed One's Fate Shall Be Revealed..._

_What was I going to tell Annabeth?_

**Sorry it's short, but your reviews are what inspired me to write this next chapter so quickly! And I have more good news: I might have my first book finished by the end of this year. I'm not making any promises or giving anything away, I just wanted you to share in my excitement! **


	38. Chapter 34

**Hey everybody. I know I haven't updated in a while and I want to apologize for that. I've been extremely bust lately, and my other grandpa isn't doing too well. Add that to the fact that my email hasn't been working and it wouldn't let me log onto fanfiction until yesterday. I should have been writing, but after my grandpa died last year, I guess I had lost my will to write and do other hobbies that I usually did, but I plan on picking all of them back up. I hope you can forgive me for taking so long. I wrote this chapter as quickly and as well as I possibly could. I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to review. **

**I got a couple flames in the past few months, and let me tell you, they made me laugh considering I know I'm a better writer than that. I just want to let those people know, I started this story when I was really young and to put that kind of language in a review is just wrong to such naive eyes. I've done quite a bit of growing up since then and as soon as I'm done with this story, I plan on going back and fixing all the mistakes and will probably end up splitting this story into two parts. So don't get your panties in a twist and get all pissy for my poor grammar when I know you probably make mistakes too. **

**Now that this long AN is over, I'd like to get back to what you all came to read.**

As soon as the dust and steam settled completely, I swam to the edge of the pool. There was no doubt in my mind that security would be here soon to see what had happened and when they got here, they were not going to be happy.

I looked around at all of my friends. They were all stretching and trying to work the soreness out of their bodies. I could tell they were all exhausted; I was too; and with Ashley gone there was definitely going to be some emotional stress. If we didn't rest soon, then there was going to be some arguing. Tyson was holding Rachel over his shoulder while Nico and Thalia were both making their way over to me with a still unconscious Annabeth.

"I think we should find someplace safe to sleep for the night. Hopefully we have enough money to get a room at a motel or something." I said mentally going over our supplies. We only had a little money left and without the mist, Tyson's one eye would be visible, meaning it would a lot trickier to get a room.

"Let's get out of here before we're caught. Annabeth needs medical attention and we can't really do any of that out in the open." Thalia added.

I nodded, but before we were able to leave, a couple-dozen Telekines (AN: I still have no clue how to spell it) ran out of nowhere and started attacking us. I had completely forgotten about them. The others looked tired, but they got ready to fight none-the-less. There was no way I could let them fight in the condition they were in.

"Tyson! Get them out of here. Ask the Nereid to get them to safety!" Tyson nodded and pulled them all under the water, not giving them the chance to reply.

I faced the onslaught of Telekines and stood my ground. I was getting tired of these things. Annoyed, I put Riptide away, waited for Cyclone to turn back into a beanie and willed the water to create a large tidal wave.

The dolphins moved behind me and I let the tidal wave go. I watched with satisfaction as the tidal wave easily picked up the large group of Telakines and as soon as they were high enough in the air I waved my arm up. The water froze over with crackling and popping noises, freezing the angry faces of the Telekines.

Without so much as another glance, I ran and dove after my friends, hoping they didn't get too far. It was certainly easier swimming by myself and before I knew it, I had found my friends sitting on the beach about three miles down the shore, taking care of Annabeth and Rachel. Both hadn't woken yet.

I was worried about Annabeth, to say the least. She had gone through so much, though I knew she would be fine. She was a lot stronger than this and maybe with Ashley gone, she would go back to being her bossy, know-it-all self. I missed the old Annabeth, the one that wasn't trying to be different for Ashley. Yes I would miss Ashley and I knew everybody else would as well, but she had changed Annabeth over the last few months.

"Percy?" I looked up to see Thalia with a little plastic baggie of money. "We've got enough money to stay one night at a motel." I nodded and took the baggie and shoved it into my pocket.

"Let me talk to the Nereid for a minute, then we can head out."

I walked back into the water and found the Nereid waiting for me.

"Thank you for your help. Do you need to take Tyson back with you?"

"Actually, I think he would be of more use with you and your friends. He has grown much since you last saw him. I will take my leave now. If I am needed again, then just throw this into the sea." She handed me a palm-sized shell. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the shell was a glowing faintly and let off a low hum.

"You can hear the sea if you put your ear to it." She said with a smile, before disappearing.

I tucked the shell into my pocket next to Riptide and walked back onto the shore. While I was gone, Rachel had woken up and was busy chugging a bottle of water. Nico was sitting a few feet away from her, but looked too uncomfortable to say anything. At least he was trying. I smiled teasingly at him and he glared back.

"Ok, let's go find a motel. Anybody know where we might find one?"

"I saw one about a mile or two back." Thalia added with a yawn.

"Ok then, let's go." Tyson picked up Annabeth and I made sure that she was comfortable before we all started walking.

The streets were completely bare from any cars or people, probably because it was almost midnight.

"There's one!" Thalia finally said after a few minutes. We looked up to see a small little motel. It looked small and clean, but you never know with motels.

"I'll go up to the front desk. You guys wait our here." I walked in to see a little old lady listening to the radio and playing cards. She looked up when I got to the desk.

"Hello." She said with a bright smile. Her gray hair was flying everywhere around her face and her wrinkled face held excitement.

"Welcome! What can I do for ya?" She asked.

"I'd like a room for the night." I replied. She looked at me strangely and then at the clock.

"Do-ya know what time it is?"

I nodded. "That's why I need the room."

She smiled again. The lady seemed different. There was something about her that screamed "different".

"Ok!" She said finding a room key and handing it to me.

"How much for the night?" I asked, pulling out the baggie from my pocket.

"On the house sonny!" She said loudly and cheerily.

This got me really suspicious. "Are you sure?"

There was a sparkle in her eye. "Don't bite the mouth that feeds ya! Just shake my hand and accept the gift!" I cautiously shook her hand and as soon as our hands met an image of Hestia appeared in my mind and I couldn't help but smile, now understanding why she was being so welcoming and overly-friendly.

"You're a daughter of Hestia. I didn't know she had demigod children." I said, a bit more comfortable around the elderly demigod.

"She comes down to see what's new in the world every once in a while." She replied, before handing me a handful of quarters. "Now get yourself cleaned up. There's a laundry room next door."

I smiled and thanked her. She stopped me before I walked out.

"Are ya a son of Poseidon? You look like him." She asked. I smiled and nodded before continuing on my way out.

oooOOOoooOOOooo

"Looks like luck is finally on our side." I said showing them the keys then the full bag of money.

"How much did it cost?" Rachel asked, shifting her backpack.

"Not a dime. The owner is a daughter of Hestia, so she let us stay for free. She even gave us some money so that we can wash our clothes." I said as we looked around for our room. We finally found it and opened the door to two queen sized beds and a couch with a fold-out mattress. There was a TV, a bathroom, and a closet for our bags.

"Finally!" Thalia said diving onto the nearest bed and falling asleep without even taking her shoes off.

"Well, I guess I'll share the bed with her. But shouldn't someone stay up just in case Annabeth wakes up?" Rachel asked.

"I'll do that." I said, laying Annabeth on the fold-out bed and putting our bags in the closet. Nico and Tyson both fell asleep on the other bed before I even had time to grab the TV remote and sit on the other side of the fold-out mattress.

"Wake me up in a few hours and I'll take your place. You need to rest too." Rachel said. I agreed and she went to sleep.

As soon as they were all out, I let my thoughts drift off and soon they were centered on Wise Girl. I hoped she was alright. I hoped she didn't have any broken bones or a concussion. I looked over at her. There was something about her that was eating at me. It made my stomach twist in knots, as if I was nervous.

But there was no reason I should be nervous around her. Was I worried about her? Was I nervous at the prospect of telling her about Ashley? We've been best friends for years, why was I so nervous around her? I mean I knew her better than anyone. Why was I having this feeling around her?

Then suddenly it just clicked. What Nico and Thalia had been teasing me about; why I was suddenly so nervous around her; why I had been so focused on her actions lately. I swallowed thickly as it finally registered in my Seaweed Brain.

'_I'm in love with her.'_

**I know, I know. Finally! I finally started with the romance, but we're talking about **_**Percy **_**here. He has a brain made of Seaweed. So, just so you guys know, I have never been to Florida in my life and with a quick look at google maps, I have learned that Sea world is actually not right next to the ocean, but instead connected to a bay that leads to the ocean, so let's just pretend it was right next to the sea for the sake of the story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review!**


	39. Chapter 35

**Hi everybody, just thought I'd let you know what happened. So my Grandpa, the one that didn't die last year, died this year. The reason I took so long in updating was that he was sick and we knew he was going to die, so I put off writing until he had passed. He passed away on Father's day and we had the funeral a week and a half later. I tried writing after that, I actually ended up writing this chapter three times, no joke, but each time I didn't like the way it turned out. The one time I actually like the end result my computer died twenty seconds after I finished typing it and destroyed my beloved work! Let's just say it was almost like one of those commercials where you see people throwing their electronics out their windows… Anyways, I finished it! I hope you like it and please review. It would be much appreciated. **

**To my flamers: I started this when I was a sophomore in high school. I'm no professional, so get over yourselves. I plan on fixing it up as soon as I finish it. I give it about five-six more chapters until the end. **

"_Percy. Percy? … SEAWEED BRAIN!"_

I sat up with a start and before I knew what was happening, my face was flat on the carpet. I just lay there for a moment before looking up and seeing Annabeth standing there with her arms crossed in front of her and an amused smirk on her face.

"About time. We just finished packing up the few things we have left. Everybody else is in the dining room. Mary Lou made us breakfast, so you better hurry up if you want anything."

I sat up and stared at her blankly, several questions popped into my head, but I was too tired to ask them. She seemed to understand what I was silently asking, since she rolled her eyes and pulled me up by my arm.

"Mary Lou's is the daughter of Hestia."

I nodded in understanding. "Why didn't you wake me with everyone else?"

"Because of what happened yesterday. Apparently, I missed a good fight. We decided to let you sleep in since you use your energy faster than the rest of us."

I was happy that they let me sleep in, but she made it sound as if I was lazy. But the fact that she knew about what happened yesterday was had me more curious.

"You know about what happened yesterday?" I questioned uneasily, hoping that I wasn't bringing up something that should be left alone.

Annabeth's face fell and she sat on one of the beds. She nodded but then looked up with a look of motivation. "Before we came to camp Half-blood this year, Ashley told me of that weird dream she had. We had been telling weird stories on the drive up to camp. She thought nothing of it, but since half-bloods don't have regular dreams, I knew it was important. As soon as we became aware of the new quest and what the prophecy said, I knew what was going to happen, so I tried to make the past few weeks the best of Ashley's life. After a few days, I learned that being near someone who's doomed can rattle your nerves a lot more than you can expect, not knowing when they would be put in danger. I was weak, not knowing what was going to happen was nerve-wracking, but I _will_ avenge her. Whoever sent that dragon is going down."

I was extremely surprised to hear that Annabeth had already known all of this. Is that why she was acting so different these past few weeks? So that Ashley would feel more comfortable, and because she was afraid for her? How had I missed that? I guess I certainly was a Seaweed Brain, not that I denied it before…

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing I could think to say. She smiled at me and I felt my face heat up a bit, my realization from last night reappearing at the forefront of my mind. I prayed that Annabeth didn't notice.

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Annabeth stood up quickly and clapped her hands enthusiastically.

"Well! Let's go get breakfast before Nico and Tyson hog all the pancakes! Then we can come back here and take turns cleaning up."

I agreed and we walked out and to the dining room that was attached to the lobby.

As soon as we walked in, everyone's eyes were on us. They all smiled and made room at the table. Mary Lou was standing next to the table pouring two glasses or orange juice and setting them in front of us.

"So, ya fellas are leavin' today are ya? Well, I better let ya know what Hestia told me last night 'n a dream." Mary Lou said cheerily and we all stopped to pay attention.

"She said that ya'll need to get to that Island… what's it called? Alcatraz? Sure is! Said there'd be the last battle there. Said to be safe."

I felt my heart beat quicken at the sound of that. So we were one step away from seeing the end of the quest? I had made a promise to never let Kronos grasp hold of and power ever again, and I was going to live up to that promise.

"Alright!" I said, standing and looking at everybody. "It looks like we'll be solving this once and for all."

The rest of them stood, "Are we ready?" I asked.

"Let's kick some butt." Thalia cheered.

"We've only got a few days before this Mist situation gets out of hand. We have Rachel's credit card and we've got enough supplies to last about four days, but how are we supposed to get there without a car? Do we have enough money to take a train?" Annabeth asked.

"I can have my dad send a car, but it would take about a day for them to get here." Rachel said, but she didn't seemed convinced that her father would be of much help.

"If ya need somethin' to get ya there, I might have somethin' for ya."Mary Lou said, her gray hair fell in her face, making her look even more insane than she was acting. I couldn't help but smile though. It was nice to know there were so many people I could trust.

Twenty minutes later, I was smiling like a mad man and standing next to my favorite means of transportation: A deep-sea fishing boat.

Nico and Thalia looked uncertain. They've been on a boat before, but that didn't mean they liked it. In fact, they had been green the entire time.

"Are you sure about this Percy? I mean, we'll be in your father's territory…" Thalia said uneasily.

"My father is the nicer one out of the Big Three. If anyone, he'll be the more understanding. Plus, I'll be the one navigating, so we'll be fine."

We all got on, some more hesitantly than others. The boat was a good size. It fit about ten people comfortably and had everything that one might need. I took a seat near the back window while everyone else wandered the boat curiously

I turned to Mary Lou, who was standing on the dock with one of her crazy smiles.

"Thank you!" I yelled to her and she waved happily back before leaving to go take care of the motel.

"So… how are you going to drive this thing if you're just going to sit there?" Thalia asked.

I shrugged and leaned back happily. Annabeth, Nico and Tyson did the same.

"Really Thalia, you should know by now." Nico said.

Thalia sat down as well and Rachel soon followed

"I know Percy can navigate and stuff, but why isn't he standing up near the controls?"

"Cousin Thalia should look out the window." Tyson said happily.

We all looked out and they saw that I had in fact, already been driving the boat for several minutes. We were out of the port and were heading out into deeper water.

"I can work a boat with simple hand motions and words." I explained. Although, she should already know that.

"I thought you could only do that with an older boat?" Rachel asked. I shook my head.

"No, any boat, submarine, surfboard, pool noodle. Anything that can navigate the ocean I can control."

"That's so cool." She said, leaning back against her seat and closing her eyes.

Soon enough, everyone was either snoozing or talking quietly. I had started a conversation with Tyson about those cool freeze-beads he had created. He had used them at Sea World when he had tried to save me by freezing me in a giant wall of ice…

Annabeth had joined the conversation as well and was talking strategy with us and despite everything, I couldn't help but agree with everything she said. I was turning into a sap now that I was aware of my feelings, and unfortunately, I think Nico and Thalia noticed my intentions as well by the way they kept on shooting each other knowing glances. They were completely oblivious to my glares.

"When do you think we'll be there?" Rachel asked.

"Probably in the next two or three days. We'll have to drop anchor in Texas since it's not like we can go around Mexico or anything. Then we'll take a train to California and then we can either continue by train up the coast, or we'll take another boat." Annabeth answered.

"Sounds like a plan." Nico said from his spot on the couch, he didn't even try to open his eyes.

I sighed and stood before going to look through my new backpack that Rachel had got. It had a change of clothes and a new IPHONE that I had told her not to buy for me. She didn't listen and ended up getting one for all of us. I pulled it up and my eyes widened at the item underneath it.

"What is it Percy?" Annabeth asked and I looked at her sadly.

"Come see for yourself." I pulled it out and held it up for all to see.

It was Ashley's whistle.


End file.
